The Center of Excellence for Rural Special Education at Clemson University (South Carolina) has developed a field-based undergraduate preservice teacher training program. During the fall and spring semesters of their senior year, preservice teachers are matched with a mentor special education teacher for 2 weeks in a rural school district of the type in which they are likely to find employment. Differing markedly from areas near the university, these districts have poor health care, large African American populations, and high rates of poverty and at-risk factors for school failure. The preservice teachers stay in homes of community families, and through the implementation of a service learning project, identify community needs and incorporate them into a meaningful school curriculum. Much of the impact of schools in rural communities depends on the strength of the school-community connection, and service learning can strengthen the interaction between classroom and community. The four stages of service learning projects are discussed, as well as how service learning uses the rural community as a curriculum resource, provides students with an opportunity to participate in job development, addresses community social and welfare needs, helps adults realize that schooling is a lifelong activity, enhances intergenerational ties, and demonstrates that caring for others and the community are characteristics of responsible adults. Figures depict the integration of service learning into the IEP and service learning responses to community problems. (TD)