In an increasingly competitive market, the onerous is on departments to ensure that students build targeted skills. Nevertheless, in an ever more polarized and politicized world, it is unwise to trade off engaging in social justice for a checklist of abilities. Community-based and service-learning offer the unique opportunity for students to hone…

This is a snapshot of a service learning course founded on narrative medicine, a clinical practice designed to replace impersonal care with empathic listening. By utilizing poetry therapy techniques among nursing home populations, a program called "HPU LifeLines" promotes a community literacy of illness and provides psychological and…

Maintains that self-esteem is more than simply "feeling good" about oneself. It derives from having experienced meaningful success. A service learning program can accomplish this and avoid the self-preoccupation and narcissism that occasionally accompany self-esteem efforts. Service learning can replace this with empathy and commitment. (MJP)