What Faculty Are Saying

"Service-Learning has re-invigorated my teaching, given me a greater sense of community and taught me the challenges facing our students and the community. It has also provided a vehicle through which my students can learn not only from me, but from experts in the community. By working with teachers and students at Teilman Education Center, my students now realize how course content can be implemented in the "real world" and how their skills can make a significant difference". . . Ben Boone

"Fresno State's focus on Service-Learning, and the support the university provides faculty in this area, is one of the best things about working here". . . Ben Boone

"Students need many skills and much knowledge to succeed in today's rapidly changing world. I use service learning as a great tool which helps my students explore career options in their field of study or beyond.  In addition, thru service learning my students and I stay involved in our communities, contribute, and share our learned knowledge.   But service learning has another, less immediately visible, social value. For me it is a vehicle for creating knowledgeable, aware students who are capable of looking critically at the world in which they live and work and making informed decisions about their lives and the lives of others, beyond the subject that I teach". . . Klaus Tenbergen

"Initially, my students complained when I told them they needed to take the time to help others learn while they completed a class in Learning and Memory.  By the end of the class, though, twenty-six  of my twenty-nine students, when asked anonymously, suggested I keep the assignment because they felt it had strengthened their knowledge of the class material". . . Amanda Mortimer

"While my Learning and Memory students helped preschool and middle-school students work on learning school relevant materials, they learned how learning happens.  Service Learning made their classroom knowledge become real". . . Amanda Mortimer

"Through helping younger students, my undergraduates developed stronger ties to the community and increased their understanding of their own leaning process". . . Amanda Mortimer

"Incorporating service-learning into my public relations classes was a natural fit. The goal of our program is to nurture ethical, thoughtful, well-grounded professionals. When the students are able to apply their knowledge in ways that serve others, it facilitates that goal.". . . Betsy Hays

"Seeing my students have those 'lightbulb' moments -- when they really understand that their work is making an impact -- is priceless. When they understand that they can use their knowledge to make the world a better place -- it's magical." . . Betsy Hays

"In nursing, I find that service learning projects afford students a way to see the abstract nature of theories in action, in real life settings. Service learning provides a “gestalt” that can encompass the student’s existing schemata; with new theories, ideas and experience. This learning, if guided and nurtured by faculty through appropriate reflection, allows the student to make connections between concepts and content in a manner that I could never hope to accomplish through words alone". . . Robert Fire