My journey with SL began two+ years ago when a colleague and I decided to integrate Service Learning into our credit IL course. We hoped our students could do research for a local nonprofit that needed it. Most nonprofit agencies are sorely understaffed and overworked. It seemed obvious to us that they would appreciate our students' work since it would leave them time to do other things. It also seemed obvious to us the connections between information literacy curriculum and service learning curriculum. Both aim to make students active, engaged citizens and critical thinkers. (More on SL curriculum to come). We contacted Children's Hunger Alliance (CHA) because they advertised in our local paper that they needed volunteers to do research for them. We were on our way. The CHA staff suggested some research topics, and our students researched those topics for them as we taught them IL skills. They compiled research portfolios for CHA and handed them over on the last day of class. You can read more about the course syllabus, some assignments, rubrics and research portfolios at the link to the right labeled "Community Research Connections Course."
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