Your education is not just about you and your future career. It is also about enabling you to contribute to your community and play a part in bettering the world. Consequently, the service learning program at CSUMB offers you the opportunity to be involved in real-world community issues as part of your academic program, so that you can learn about service and social responsibility as a core part of your education.

Service learning combines formal coursework with thoughtfully organized community service experiences that teach about diversity, compassion, justice and social responsibility. Service learning courses address community-identified needs while helping students meet academic, social and civic learning goals. At CSUMB, service learning helps students develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to be multicultural community builders.

Through service, guided self-reflection, readings and in class discussions students learn about themselves and their relationship to the community around them. Service learning allows students to engage with real-world issues and social problems, and to work with community organizations to become "part of the solution."

CSUMB is one of the few public universities in the country where service learning is a graduation requirement. Each semester, over one thousand CSUMB students are working in the community at over two hundred local schools, community organizations and governmental agencies.

Service learning enables you to develop social, moral and multicultural civic skills. It provides you with unique opportunities for personal growth and learning not possible in traditional courses:

  • Learn from individuals who are different from and similar to you in age, economic means, education, physical ability, background, culture and ethnicity.
  • Examine your own values, attitudes and beliefs about service, community and social responsibility.
  • See surrounding communities as part of your classroom.
  • Gain experience in your academic or future career field while making a difference in your life and the lives of others.

The SLI offers a minor in Service Learning Leadership. The Service Learning Leadership Minor provides students with the opportunity to develop advanced knowledge an skills in community and social change processes, perspectives in service and social justice, and leadership in growing field of service learning.  It is excellent preparation for careers in education, community development and social change. To learn more about the Service Learning Leadership Minor visit:  /catalog/undergrad-education/minors/service-learning-leadership

The  Service Learning Institute is also home to an innovative Student Leadership in Service Learning (SL2 ) Program.

The SL2 Program plays an important role in creating peer to peer mentor-ship for CSUMB students engaging in service learning courses. By supporting students, faculty and community, Service Learning Student Leaders help facilitate the development of a community motivated for social change. The SL2 Program provides students with excellent hands-on experience in facilitating experiential learning and organizing community activities. After graduation, CSUMB's Service Learning Student Leaders have gone on to meaningful employment in schools, non profit organizations and governmental agencies throughout the region. For more information about the Student Leadership in Service Learning Program please visit: http://service.csumb.edu/about

Sponsored By

College of University Studies and Programs > Service Learning Institute

Included Academic Fields

Community Service ~ Public Service ~ Civic Engagement

Online Components

None

Associated Course Codes

SL ~ all courses with an "S" following the course number (e.g. LS 398SLS 398S: Soc Found of Multicult Ed)

Associated Minor

Service Learning Leadership Minor