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Welcome to the

Leduc Center for Civic Engagement!

Building the Bridge between Learning and Community

The Leduc Center for Civic Engagement strives to provide the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with activities that meet the challenge of providing active student learning opportunities while meeting community needs.

Defining Community Engagement

The University believes the integration of learning and service is a powerful tool for enhancing student learning, increasing student engagement, and creating a more just society. To better establish this tool's confines, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has adopted the Carnegie Foundation's definition of community engagement.

"Community engagement describes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.

The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good."

Defining Service-Learning

Service-Learning is a methodology that melds community service with classroom learning goals. It is a pedagogical method used in credit-bearing courses that is designed with the dual mission of:

a) Student attainment of discipline specific knowledge through creatively designed active learning community based projects and

b) Community benefit through the thoughtful identification and completion of community-based service.

The methodology of Service Learning requires:

a) A clear link between academic objectives and service experience that is mutually beneficial to the goals of the course and community need.

b) Student reflection as a means to gain a greater understanding of course content and a broader sense of civic responsibility.

Service-learning augments the acquisition of skills and knowledge through experiential applications that meet the needs of a community and simultaneously fosters civic responsibility.