Citizenship and Service-Learning

Take a 1-credit course

Join professionals as they work on real issues in the community.

Explore opportunities

A service-learning student performs a diabetic retinopathy test.

What is it?

Service-learning in a nutshell.

Mo State faculty member gestures at factory conveyor to a group of students.

FAQs

Answers to common detail questions.

Active Citizenship

Getting things done

Students
8,271
Up from 7,891 last academic year: students who participated in service-learning in
                                 2024 - 2025. 

Hours
86,003
 85,000 hours combined in the 2024 - 2025 academic year to communities locally, nationally,
                                 and globally. 

Value
$2.7M
2,770,157 dollars worth of service was provided by students in the 2024 - 2025 academic
                                 year.

Contact us

Inquire about partnerships, arrange for service-learning students, share about upcoming projects/needs, ask questions, or provide feedback.

Our efforts are driven by a focus on community engagement.

The Citizen Scholar statue: an academic woman holding up a globe

As defined by the Carnegie Foundation, Community Engagement describes community engagement as a 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.

Additionally, Missouri State's public affairs mission further informs our understanding and practice of community engagement: "Community engagement is recognizing needs in the communities to which one belongs, then contributing knowledge and working with the community to meet those needs. Community engagement requires reaching beyond one's self for the betterment of the community – a process that fosters greater awareness and personal growth."

"Field-based" education designed by teachers. The definition of high-impact.

A student wearing protective goggles in a lab

The office of Citizenship and Service-Learning (CASL) supports the development, implementation, the evaluation of sustainable service-learning courses and encourages community-engaged learning across the curricula at Missouri State University as a high-impact practice (HIP) to enhance student learning, student success and retention, develop civic engagement, support the university’s mission in public affairs, and foster collaboration with communities – locally, nationally, and globally. Community-engaged learning is a form of experiential education characterized by student participation in an organized community-based activity that:
- Connects to specific learning outcomes
- Meets identified community needs
- Provides structured time for student reflection and connection of the community-based experience to learning
As defined by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU), service-learning, as an “instructional strategy”, is a form of experiential “field-based” education that provides students “direct experience with issues they are studying in the curriculum. A key element in these programs is the opportunity students have to both apply what they are learning in real-world setting and reflect in a classroom setting on their service experiences…”. These programs model the idea that giving something back to the community is an important college outcome, and that working with community partners is good preparation for citizenship, work, and life.

https://www.aacu.org/trending-topics/high-impact