SERVICE-LEARNING and VOLUNTEERING in our COMMUNITY

Create a college culture of civic engagement and altruism at Pellissippi State Community College. Add meaning and experience to your education - especially Tennessee Achieves scholars, Service-Learning students, and those who want to make a difference. 

Click HERE to join the Pellissippi State Service Corps.

What is Service-Learning?

Service-Learning is an experiential teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.

In academic Service-Learning, students do not earn credit for the service, but for the learning that takes place as a result. Service-Learning differs from volunteering, internships, or student teaching experiences because the service is tied to the course learning outcomes through reflection.

Service-Learning vs. Volunteering

• Service-Learning 1) involves structured reflection on your experiences, and 2) is connected to skills you are learning in a college course

• Volunteering is simply going out as an individual or as a group and giving your time/talent to a non-profit organization without intentionally connecting the volunteer experience to something you are doing for class credit. However, if you are a tnAchieves student, you will do some reflecting on your volunteer community service experiences when you report on your hours.

Service-Learning at Pellissippi State

Service-Learning helps develop a core aspect of the college mission: to create a culture of service on our campuses. Our Pellissippi administration supports Service-Learning and students volunteering through community partners, not only for its educational value, but also for its role in creating socially responsible citizens.The college believes that students, faculty, community partners, and the Knoxville community at large gain from the mutually beneficial relationship fostered through Service-Learning.

It is important to note that Service-Learning is not a required component of students' education. Instructors decide whether or not to incorporate Service-Learning into a class.

The Service-Learning Difference

• Picking up trash as part of a clean-up event is Service.

• Studying water samples under a microscope is Learning.

• Collecting and analyzing water samples, documenting results, and presenting findings to a local pollution control agency, all while successfully fulfilling course learning outcomes specifically tied to the activity is Service-Learning.