Scholars have suggested that civic engagement in the United States is declining and some have argued that institutions of higher education are responsible for the fostering of civic engagement through efforts such as service learning. These opportunities may be created either through a top-down approach with student assignment to specific groups…

Happenstance learning theory posits that unexpected events can have lasting positive impacts on individual learning and development. In this reflection, a U.S. doctoral student shares how an unexpected opportunity occurred to participate in a cultural immersion experience in Ghana, West Africa. Along with learning outcomes that resulted,…

Youths not only participate in Extension services but also can be equipped as facilitators to extend information about a critical topic to new audiences. Our interdisciplinary team of Extension professionals created a program to equip youths as peer educators, increase youths' awareness and understanding of a new topic (local foods), promote…

As learning institutions, U.S. universities aim to provide abundant learning opportunities to fulfill students' right to learn. Undergraduate education is considered an important component of lifelong learning and aims to enable students to "learn how to learn." During the undergraduate stage, schools pay special attention to cultivating…

The University of Colorado Boulder recently created a new undergraduate major in leadership and community engagement. This article describes the design process, key features, and challenges that have been involved with this initiative. The program is designed to offer a unique model of education for leadership through a reciprocal, community-based…

Teacher education programs have long recognized field experience as an essential part of the professional development of aspiring teachers. While much attention has been given to providing preservice music teachers with rich and varied field experiences in grades K through 12, experiences in prekindergarten field settings are much less common.…

The "Beyond Perceptions" collaborative visual art project, an ongoing initiative by the Indianapolis Art Center, provided opportunities for high school students to engage with homeless individuals through partnerships with people and organizations in the community who serve this marginalized group. These experiences challenged…

Excellent schools strive to develop a comprehensive and integrative improvement process for students and their families that integrate best practices of positive school culture, climate, and social and emotional learning; character development skills, enhanced academic achievement strategies, and positive parent engagement. Character.org's…

Community engagement through service-learning has been a mainstay of higher education for the past 20 years and has increasingly proven successful in grounding academic knowledge in community experience. This article explores how service-learning programs designed to shape students' sense of responsibility for the common good can also foster their…

Social work scholars have increasingly adopted community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to center community voice in research and action to promote youth's healthy development. While valuable contributions have emerged to engage in further dialectical learning processes, limited research has examined in depth the participation,…

During the 2016 election season, the authors--a collection of staff, faculty, and students at a rural, four-year comprehensive college--piloted a new format for a student-driven, campus-wide, nonpartisan voter mobilization campaign anchored in a political science course and supported by a credit-bearing internship and advanced graphic design…

Experiential-learning provides opportunities for students that feature a variety of highimpact practices including first-year seminars, internships, community learning, collaborative projects, and capstone seminars. To offer these high-impact practices for students, faculty from across disciplines and majors must be willing to incorporate these…

As service-learning has moved from the margins to the mainstream of education, programs once led by students are now coordinated by administrators, faculty, or leadership development staff. This chapter calls for the return of student-led service.

Gifted middle school students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades engaged with a community activism curriculum designed and implemented by the author, their gifted education facilitator, as part of their gifted programming. This authentic learning experience asked students to follow a creative problem-solving process that fostered thoughtful…

Service Learning, a pedagogy combining formal learning with community service, has recently developed into Intercultural Service Learning (ISL). Intercultural Citizenship Education (ICE) combines foreign-language education and education for (intercultural) citizenship. They have different origins and applications but recent work in ISL is linked…