Report Assesses Benefits of Combining Overseas Study With Community Service

Service-Learning Across Cultures: Promise and Achievement
edited by Humphrey Tonkin

Collegiate study-abroad programs have been criticized in recent years as glorified vacations that give students little chance to learn about foreign cultures and even less opportunity to serve people in those locales.

The International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership was founded in 1982 to provide study-abroad opportunities that allow students to pursue academic courses while performing community service. This report is the result of the Partnership’s three-year study, financed by the Ford Foundation, to assess the value of its programs for participants, institutions that coordinate the programs, and organizations in which students serve.

Alumni interviewed for the study said that, as a result of their experiences abroad, they had gained a more-nuanced view of the United States and were more able to work with diverse groups of people and in challenging environments. Colleges and universities that coordinated programs with the International Partnership were much more likely to introduce community service into their regular curricula, according to the report, while organizations and communities that hosted students often developed close and long-term relationships with them.

To make overseas service learning more meaningful, the report recommends that universities develop better communication with the community groups where their students serve as volunteers. Universities should also consider the needs of community groups when matching them with students, and should educate students in advance about the potential impact of their volunteering.

Publisher: International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership, 815 Second Avenue, Suite 315, New York, N.Y. 10017; (212) 986-0989; fax (212) 986-5039; info@ipsl.org; http://www.ipsl.org; 418 pages; $16; ISBN 0-9701984-8-5.