The 21st century world is increasingly globalized and interconnected, and migration is a reality that substantially impacts the US educational system, and often requires specialized services for migrant students to successfully transition to higher education. While higher education has many benefits, it also presents inherent risks and challenges…

Spiritual growth and development is frequently cited as an outcome of participation in service-learning projects. However, little research has focused on measuring the students' ability to understand the connection between the service-learning experience and their personal faith and the ability to live out their Christian values in the field.…

This two-part investigation extended research demonstrating the civic impact of college students' spiritual commitments. The initial study served as a large-scale assessment (n = 768) of political involvement using a new Inventory of Political Activity. The smaller-scale, follow-up study (n = 129) used two validated measures of spiritual…

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…

Cultivating spiritual development is central to the mission of Catholic higher education institutions. Studies demonstrate that service learning is a pedagogical method through which spiritual development can be fostered among undergraduates. This study builds upon prior research to analyze whether spiritual growth occurred and which dimensions of…

This article explores the current and historical importance of business to the Mercy ministries, and the ways in which business programs at Mercy colleges and universities exemplify and promote their charism. Mission statements, faculty and staff development activities, research, curricular and extracurricular initiatives, community service, and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students' religiousness and participation in alternative breaks (ABs) using both survey and interview data from the National Survey of Alternative Breaks. Findings from this mixed methods study demonstrate the potential for ABs to facilitate religiousness and help students connect…

This article explores civic development and its roles in the lives of emerging adults, and the ways in which college contexts--particularly Christian colleges and universities--may foster adaptive civic development. First, the article presents an argument for the importance of fostering civic development as rooted in historic truths of the…

An increasing number of universities have initiated activities and assignments to foster empathic and altruistic behavior in students. This study is a report of an outcomes assessment of a poverty immersion experience in a Christian urban ministries course. Following Firmin's (2006) protocol, we used a qualitative methodology that included three…

In a recent study, we found that 17-year-old adolescents appreciated most non-formal aspects of spirituality in terms of relational consciousness. Nevertheless, male students expressed a significantly higher self-centeredness than females. By investigating 900 adolescents from Christian academic high schools in the southwest of Germany, the study…

Pluralism and engagement with diverse religious, secular, and spiritual worldviews can contribute significantly to college student growth and civic engagement. But these concepts can be difficult to measure in the framework of student learning. This article describes a process and product undertaken by Elon University, Interfaith Youth Core, and…

The researcher analyzed National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data for over 7,000 first-year students at nearly 450 institutions to examine the impacts on spiritual development. International, Asian, and first generation students reported gains in spirituality. Participating in worshipful activities, engaging in service learning and…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of organizational features and student experiences on spiritual development among first-year students attending four-year institutions in the United States. The sample included over 7,000 first-year students from nearly 450 postsecondary institutions who participated in the spring 2004 National…

Service-learning, by its very nature, fosters young people's spiritual development, especially in experiencing a sense of interconnectedness with others and the rest of the world; opening one's heart; and expanding self-inquiry and self-knowledge. (Contains 7 notes.)

Spiritual intelligence--using a multisensory approach to access one's inner knowledge to solve global problems--can be an integrating theme to engage gifted students in building global awareness in the classroom. This article introduces individuals providing training in higher consciousness and presents examples of strategies to further develop…