CARE
CARE Mission Statement
The mission of the CARE committee is to promote excellence in teaching and learning through the integration of academic study with active community service. We collaborate with the community, encourage civic engagement, promote personal growth and foster social responsibility.
As such, CARE has established the following criteria that work towards fulfilling our Service Learning mission:
| Commitment | The student, instructor, and members of the community ally to create relevant hands-on service oriented learning opportunities. |
| Action | The student contracts to work within the community and performs meaningful service integrated with the content of the course. |
| Reflection | The student reflects upon the experience and is able to articulate the relevance of the activity to the substance of the course and its value to society. |
| Education | Social responsibility and the educational experience are reinforced through this collaboration between the student, instructor, and community organizations. |
Experientialist John Dewey (1938) argued that if learning occurs in isolation, the compartmentalization of that learning will inherently prevent it from transferring to the actual experiences of life and will thus leave the learner ill-prepared for the demands of the future. Unfortunately, current practices in higher education have tended to favor teaching in isolation. Upon graduation, we “hope” that our students will somehow be able to integrate and apply the information they have learned and ultimately that they will contribute in some meaningful way to the greater good of our society.
Academic Service Learning is a structured means by which students are able to experience first-hand the primary relationships between what they are learning in the classroom and its relevance to the community at large through participation in community service.
It is important to recognize that Service Learning goes beyond performing community service action or volunteering one’s time, although, as an institution, we promote those types of actions, as well (See Community Service * below). For the benefits of Service Learning to be fully realized, students must actively participate in a relevant service minded activity that offers an opportunity to integrate the course content; and then it is essential that those connections be reinforced and made salient through guided reflection. Without reflection, the degree to which students recognize the connections between themselves, the classroom, and the immediate needs of their community may not be fully appreciated or even known.
* Community Service
As stated above, Genesee also encourages students and staff to participate
in community service endeavors. While these projects may be independent of academic
coursework and lack the reflective component essential within service learning,
they contribute greatly to the betterment of society.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Macmillan.