Integration of Service Learning throughout a Department's Curriculum

Higher education has enthusiastically adopted the concept and practice of campus-based civic engagement.  Virginia Tech is a member of Campus Compact, a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents (representing over six million students), that is dedicated to promoting service, civic engagement, and service-learning in higher education (http://www.compact.org/).  Within Virginia Tech, the Center for Student Engagement & Community Partnerships (CSECP) called for proposals for a $10,000 award to a department or college that “best represents a coherent and innovative plan for developing infrastructure and enacting the curricular reform to realize engagement goals.”  The Department of Horticulture won that award in 2009, and has developed a plan to integrate service learning activities in most of its courses.  A key to winning this award was the incorporation of e-portfolios into the plan.  All Horticulture students will be trained to use E-portfolios so that they will systematically record and track service-learning projects as well as academic work.  The Department of Horticulture’s plan is to incorporate an integrated system for all Horticulture majors, from entry to graduation, to participate in highly experiential Service Learning projects.  The goal is to enhance the community, value community-based-learning, to promote lifelong service and learning, and to reward collaboration both within and beyond the Department.  Faculty will integrate Service Learning into most undergraduate courses (approximately 15; at least one designated as Service Learning) as well as Horticulture Garden and club activities.  Hence, faculty culture will be transformed so that threads of Service Learning concepts are woven throughout the curriculum.  A clear protocol will ensure projects are sound, effectively enacted, and evaluated upon completion.  Following a detailed rubric, students will compose an e-portfolio synthesizing course projects and service learning activities at Virginia Tech.  Portfolios will be presented in a capstone course; students will describe their projects, the progression of understanding, and improvements in knowledge and skills. Full implementation of the plan will be achieved by the spring semester of 2012.  Successes and lessons learned from the first year of the plan's implementation will be described.