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The mission of the SLCE program at USAO is to connect our students with the broader community through collaborative partnerships with individuals, businesses, government agencies, faith-based organizations, and civic groups. We place USAO students in the community working on a wide range of service-oriented projects. Past projects have included working with the Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, Lincoln Elementary in Chickasha, the city of Minco, and the USAO community garden, and AmeriCorps. It is refreshing and encouraging that today's college students have put in more volunteer hours than any generation three decades! Individuals, teams of friends, and students groups are always on the look-out for opportunities to volunteer in the community. Faculty recognize this, and are interested in having their students re-enforce the learning objectives of a course by placing students in the community for some "hands-on" service-related activities. In this respect, Community Partners become co-instructors. This teaching method - service learning - has been shown to deepen a students' understanding of course material, as well as cultivate a sense of social responsibility in students. If you are interested in exploring potential collaborative projects with USAO students, consider becoming a Community Partner and sharing your organizational information with students and faculty. Use this form to describe your organization's goals and needs. In other words, what do you want to do, and how can we help? With this information, the SLCE office can coordinate collaborative projects, whether with individual students, student clubs, or classes with service learning potential.

The SLCE program at USAO distinguishes between service learning and traditional volunteerism (civic engagement). USAO students are encouraged to volunteer in the community, and the students themselves often seek out opportunities for civic engagement. The civic-mindedness of this generation is refreshing. In many cases, the volunteer services students provide reinforce specific concepts they've studied in class. For example, a sociology major studying poverty would benifit from working with Habitat for Humanity project building homes for low-income families. Some faculty fully integrate a volunteer project into their class, with assignments specifically related to the students' activities in the community. Students may also arrange their own service learning projects under the supervision of the SLCE Coordinator. This is service learning at its best, a "hands-on" approach to education, and an educational approach to volunteering. Approved service learning projects are also recorded as a class on students' academic transcripts! Service learning is a collaboration between USAO faculty, the students, and members of the community. Community partners involved in service learning projects play an active role in helping students reach their learning objectives; in this regard, they are co-instructors, and have influence over the students' grades for the service element in the course. Community partners also help track students' time, as most projects require at least 12 hours of service.

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Please upload any materials that might be helpful for us to learn more about your organization, including such things as brochures, related photos, volunteer applications, and project proposals.