At many colleges and universities, student service has a history of coming from outside the academy. In New Haven, Connecticut, Dwight Hall serves as an independent community service center for Yale University students. Located on campus but not technically accountable to the university, the service center epitomizes the high degree of student leadership that is necessary for successful co-curricular service-learning. The students who run the center are motivated by their responsibility to maintain longstanding relationships with New Haven agencies. Students develop proposals and include plans for how the program will continue after they graduate. Learning and reflection regularly take place through student publications and forums sponsored by the Center.
From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy
web site: www.yale.edu/dwight
e-mail: dwighthall {at} yale(.)edu
