Service-Learning is a key component of our commitment as an engaged public university to be an active partner in creating vibrant communities, promoting justice and equity as part of a democratic society, supporting economic development and educational access, and enriching the quality of life for all.

Service-learning demonstrates our commitment to Values in Action based on BGSU’s Core Values:

• Respect for one another
• Cooperation
• Intellectual and spiritual growth
• Creative imaginings
• Pride in a job well done

The creation of high-quality courses and curricula using service-learning is an important part of creating an identity that is distinctly BGSU. Our vision is to infuse service-learning pedagogy throughout the BGSU community in order to advance the following key agendas:

• To ground students’ academic experiences in the context of community-based problems and applications and to prepare our graduates to engage others actively and effectively so that they participate fully in society as well-informed citizens.
• To provide opportunities for faculty to engage in high-quality, community-based teaching, to build partnerships with external audiences within their professions and in the broader community, and to potentially develop research sites for community-based research supporting the Scholarship of Engagement.
• To harness the resources of BGSU to help build strong communities, and extend our identity as a key community partner in our region, state, and nation.

What is Our Vision for Student Engagement?
Our vision is that each BGSU student has opportunities to engage in service-learning within his or her general education program and major.  We envision each student possessing a wide range of opportunities to participate in community-based learning through cooperative learning experiences, internships, student fellowships, student research projects, study abroad/study away, and senior capstone experiences, as well as co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities that will challenge him or her to become a lifelong volunteer, active citizen, and leader of tomorrow. In addition, BGSU graduate students will also have opportunities to engage in service-learning experiences in their own coursework and  scholarship as well as access to professional development and training to develop familiarity and expertise with service-learning, community-based pedagogy, and civic engagement as part of their professional preparation as future faculty and professionals.

A Commitment to a National Agenda
In 2006, Campus Compact, the national coalition of 1,100 college and university presidents, issued this important message to the higher education community as part of their 20th Anniversary events:

Campus Compact believes that our country cannot afford to educate a generation that acquires knowledge without understanding how it can benefit society or influence democratic decision-making. We believe that higher education remains a key institutional force in our culture, both as a repository of knowledge and as the training ground for the leaders of tomorrow. We recognize that higher education must respond to community needs and democratic responsibilities with the intellectual and professional capacities demanded by today's challenges.

As we plan for the future, we see three crucial challenges that must be met: embedding engagement more deeply across all institutions, bridging the opportunity gap by improving educational access and success, and educating students for global citizenship.

As we move forward in building an identity that is distinctly BGSU, these three challenges provide an ideal framework for the infusion of service-learning pedagogy at BGSU.