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The University of San Francisco appreciates the opportunity to work with community partners in developing service placements for USF students, faculty and staff. These placements generally take one of the following forms:
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Service-Learning Placement. USF requires every undergraduate student to take at least one service-learning course in order to graduate. Integrating service-learning into an academic course is a way to enhance the students' learning as well as the community organization's capacity. The community partner and professor work together to design service activities and learning objectives that are meaningful and related to one another, and students are challenged to explore these connections through reflective assignments. Service projects may extend over a full semester or a shorter period of time, and may include all or a portion of the students in a given course. |
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Community Action or Community Service Placement. This volunteer work is performed by individuals or groups, but there is not an explicit connection with academic coursework. Students, although encouraged to do volunteer work, do not receive credit for volunteering. Faculty and staff may also volunteer with community action or community service. |
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Internships. Internships generally last a full semester and are focused upon giving students experience in a particular setting or developing a particular set of skills. The focus of the internship is not so much upon meeting a genuine community need, but giving students a particular experience. Note: Internships may or may not be connected with an academic course. Some service-learning courses will identify themselves as internships. In other cases, students can arrange an internship without an academic component. |
If you are non-profit, governmental or public service agency and would like to invite USF students, faculty or staff to serve at your agency, you may register as part of our Community Partner database.
The University of San Francisco Office of Service-Learning and Community Action (OSLCA) views community partners as vital collaborators in the learning process. Much of a successful service-learning course, volunteer activity, and/or internship depends on the quality of the service experience. Community partners are critical to helping to frame and guide that experience, adding real-world expertise and exposure to the theories about which students are learning.
OSLCA seeks to develop relationships with Community Partners that provide reciprocal benefits to campus and community. Our hope is that USF students, faculty and staff will work with others in the community to learn about and address issues of local and global importance.
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