About Us
Meet Our Staff
Check Out Our Programs
Read Our Students' Reflections
The Virginia Tech Service-Learning Center was established in January 1995 as an academic unit in the College of Arts and Sciences. The call for a university wide service-learning program was the work of an ad hoc committee of faculty, students, and community partners, led by Lucinda Roy (then in the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences) and Cornel Morton (former Dean of Students Office). The committee conceived of service-learning as "the most innovative and creative means we have to combat student apaty, foster communication between campus and non-campus communities, and serve the needs of Southwest Virginia in practical and lasting ways" (from Service-Learning at Virginia Tech, A New Partnership with the Community, March 1994).
In the fall 2002, as a part of the university restructuring process, the Service-Learning Center became a unit in Outreach and International Affairs.
The purpose of the Service-Learning Center is to provide logistical assistance, resource support, and standards of best practice to units across campus wanting to incorporate community service into their educational mission. Every year we provide placement assistance to over 1,500 Virginia Tech students involved in course-based or co-curricular community service. Last year we engaged students from 75 different courses or programs.
The Service-Learning Center is a Learn and Serve America program. Our efforts are supported by the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, the Foundation for Roanoke Valley, the Edgar Thurman Charitable Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Verizon Foundation, SCALE (Student Coaliation for Action in Literacy Education), and private donors.
Since 1995, the Service-Learning Center has:
- Engaged over 13,000 students in registered service-learning activites.
- Raised over $1,171,000 in private and federal dollars to support service-learning, including three multi-year grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service.
- Garnered national recognition from the Corporation for National and Community Service, Campus Compact, the President's Honor Roll for Community Service, and the John Templeton Foundation.
- Receivedof the Governor's Award for Community Service for our Appal Corps program (now named Hometown Industries) in 2001.
- Prepared over 500 students to be literacy tutors in schools and afterschool programs through the Literacy Corps, a partnership with the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.
- Established partnerships with Refugee and Immigration Services, Community Housing Partners, Inc., Tekoa Residential Treatment Facility, SCALE, and Tec de Monterrey, Mexico.
- Hosted a University-Community Partnership Conference since 2004.
Meet Our Staff:
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Read Our Students' Reflections:
Battling Hunger and Poverty with Hope in War, West Virginia
Finding Home: A Personal Reflection on a Semester of Foster Care Volunteerism
Planting Little Seed in Alianza: The Global Citizen Partners Program