Volunteer Projects
A large number of the volunteer efforts at MWCC are coordinated by the Office of Student Life. All of the student clubs at MWCC, as well as hundreds of individuals, volunteer thousands of hours to community improvement projects. These projects typically take place for serval hours over one or two days; Alternative Spring Break projects may extend for the full week.
There is no question that student volunteers gain significant insights from these experiences, not only about themselves and their community, but about larger social needs. This learning is largely organic, however, and is not explictly tied to specific courses or academic outcomes.
These valuable projects are specifically designed with host-site partners to meet immediate, well-defined community needs. The skills necessary for sucess are very general, with success measured by outputs--for example, how many walls were painted, how much food collected, or how many phamplets distributed.
Service Learning
Like volunteerism, Service Learning involves students in organized community projects to address specific local needs. Service Learning differs from volunteerism because students are receiving partial course credit for their efforts and because service learning by definition is closely tied to well-structured course objectives.
Service Learning develops academic skills as well as sense of civic responsibility and commitment to the community. As a result, expectations for an agreed-upon workplan (of appoximately 20 hours of student service hours over a 14 week semester) are more defined.
Internships, Co-Ops, and Work-Study Placements
Collectively termed "experiential learning", not all of these placements (typically more intensive than service projects at 150 hours per/semester) are considered to be "community-based" or "service-oriented".
What diffentiatates community-based placements from "traditional" placements? After all, every off-campus student placement takes place in the community. The primary distinction is the documented understanding between host site, student, and faculty member regarding the measurable impact of students' work on specfic positive social outcomes resulting directly from their contibutions.
Community-based learning, of whichever animal, is at its heart a teaching method driven by motivitated faculty that combines outcomes-driven community service with academic instruction to focus on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility.