The University of Redlands is committed to community-based partnerships and systematically supports schools, hospitals, and the non-profit sector as stakeholders for the future. Student involvement can be seen most notably in the volume of service performed each year. Annually, 60,000 hours of service are given to the community through work-study placements, America Reads tutoring, an academic service requirement, faculty taught service-learning courses, non-profit internships, and volunteer outreach. The following summary lists some ways the University of Redlands has maintained its commitment to educating the hearts and minds of its students.
Graduation Required Service Hours (CSAC) Committed to teaching the ethic of service outreach, the University of Redlands requires all undergraduates to give to their community by taking a 3-unit service activity course. Each year over twenty thousand hours of service are performed at hundreds of agencies throughout the world. Placements occur annually at homeless shelters, pre-schools, police departments, safe-havens, and various other non-profit agencies whose mission the students wish to advance. The requirement is ripe for building community linkages on the reciprocal and invaluable relationships between town and gown as well as national and international service outreach.
Service Learning Courses - Student and faculty developed service learning courses are offered each Interim (January term) allowing students several options in which to actively participate in community problem solving and reflection. The following faculty taught service learning courses were offered Interim 1998.
- 1. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. Skill = Tax preparation Outreach = Tax Assistance to elderly and lower income as well as Spanish speaking communities.
2. Into the Streets. Skill = General outreach and service to dozens of agencies throughout southern California.
3. Fieldwork in Adapted P.E. Skill = Teaching physically challenged children techniques in physical education. Outreach = Special education programs, local schools, and agencies working with physically challenged children.
4. Woodwind Instrument Repair. Skill = Repairing musical instruments at no cost to school districts. Outreach = Twelve local public elementary and high schools.
5. Ropes Course Leadership. Skills = Ropes challenge course/diversity training. Outreach = Local elementary schools and reform and county schools.
6. Service In Haiti. Skill = Working with impoverished children. Outreach = Participating in orphanage work and mentoring in Haiti.
7. Service in Japan. Skill = Teaching English. Outreach = Elementary students in various schools in Japan.
Contact person: Tony Mueller, Director of Community Service Learning, csl {at} uor(.)edu
