Service-learning

Making a difference while learning in VCU’s service-learning courses

As a VCU student, you can start making a real difference in the world before you graduate. With more than 50 different service-learning courses, you have many opportunities to learn academic and job skills while at the same time meeting a real community need. Whatever your interest or major, you can find a VCU service-learning course that will take you out of the classroom and into the community to solve real world problems while you learn.

Service-learning at VCU is a course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets community-identified needs.

Learn more about service-learning at www.servicelearning.vcu.edu.

Course spotlights

HUMS 391, Peer Mentoring Pre-Health students at Cosby High School

Every spring semester about 25 undergraduate students are paired with high school students at Cosby High School Health Sciences Specialty Center. The high school students are taking a health careers exploration course to help them develop their career interests in the health sciences with a plan of college level courses and extra curricular activities to achieve their intended goals. VCU students mentor these students by providing them with feedback on their written work, designing lectures and workshops on college success skills, and helping high school students prepare a presentation on their career goals.

More information about the program can be found at www.vcu.edu/uc/prehealth/VCUUC-Cosby.htm.

VCU service-learning student
“I think the most fulfilling part of the Cosby Mentoring Program was that the Cosby students were serious and took our advice to heart. My mentees couldn’t ask enough questions about what college was like. It is great to know that the high school students in the program will not miss out on the opportunities by choosing a career path that is really right for them.” – Thomas J. Dix, B.S. in Science, VCU 2010

VCU instructor
“The mentoring class is an amazing opportunity for students to apply concepts and skills from their academic programs to helping others. The student bond with their mentees is tight! Throughout the program’s existence, mentors have helped high school students select colleges and universities to attend and prepare their applications. This is a chance to make a real difference in someone’s life!” – Seth Leibowitz, Director of Pre-health Advising

MASC 439 Public Relations Campaigns

Taught by Yan Jin, Ph.D.

Every semester, the undergraduate students in Yan Jin’s MASC 439: Public Relations Campaigns service-learning course collaborate in teams to design a public relations campaign for local nonprofit organizations that can’t afford to hire a professional advertising agency. Students design logos, write radio announcements and explore social media strategies while researching techniques most effective for each organization. By the end of the semester, the teams are ready to pitch their ideas to their clients and compete with each other to see which campaign is selected to be implemented within the Richmond community.

VCU service-learning student
“My team was motivated by the possibility of our campaign being implemented into a real organization’s plan. Service-learning projects, such as PR campaigns, are very motivating because there’s a possibility that your team’s hard work will be implemented into a real plan. In service-learning, students are not only working for their teacher, they are also working for a real client. Knowing that a client will be judging and possibly implementing my team’s work motivated us to produce the best campaign possible. Service-learning projects are mutually beneficial for the students and the client, and these projects are a way for VCU’s School of Mass Communications to give back to the Richmond community.” – Robert Seaver, December 2009 graduate

VCU instructor
“Service-learning and community engagement have always been one of the core teaching and learning objectives in our public relations program, which teaches students at both strategic and tactical levels how to plan and execute public relations as a function of managing communications between an organization and its strategic publics. This learning experience and service outcome not only help better position our graduates for the competitive job market and career advancement, but also inspire and engage them in civic participation with open minds and compassionate hearts in order to embrace real-world opportunities and challenges with well-grounded confidence and solid professional capability.” – Yan Jin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Mass Communications