The Community is Your Classroom
Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) is community-engaged learning embedded within a credit-bearing course that enhances your understanding of the course’s learning objectives and your sense of civic responsibility. AS-L allows students to apply what they are learning in class through community service, benefiting both students and service recipients. All UW-Superior’s academic departments have utilized AS-L within their course offerings.
15 Years of Academic Service-Learning Impact
133
professors/instructors participated
174
courses
942
course sections
1,033
community partners
14,954
student experiences
332,249
hours served
How Academic Service-Learning Works
Being enrolled in an Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) course means that you serve with a community organization or business to learn and apply course concepts (sometimes this occurs outside of normal class time). The number of hours that each student serves varies from 5 to 40 hours, and the specific expectations are uniquely described in the syllabus of each course.
AS-L has similarities to volunteering and internships but is always connected to a course and is unique to both the course content and community need. Each year, students can engage in one of 70 AS-L course sections. AS-L is a key workforce development strategy for area nonprofits, schools and businesses plus provides students with critical hands-on learning.
Our career services team can help you highlight this experience on resumes, cover letters, and during interviews.
Types of Academic-Service Learning
AS-L courses are available in both on-campus and online courses. AS-L can be integrated into a course in three ways:
- Placement model: Students usually serve 2-3 hours per week throughout the semester at their community site
- Presentation model: Students take material that they are learning in class and create a presentation needed by the partner
- Project model: Working alone or in groups, students collaborate with community members to devise and implement a project to produce a tangible product, such as a report or newsletter, for their agencies
Benefits of Academic Service-Learning
- Expand your resume to become a competitive job candidate or for future education/graduate school experiences
- Apply classwork to real-world issues to address real community needs
- Reinforce classroom concepts through hands-on real-world applications
- Affirm your career path by experiencing a related work environment
- Network to build relationships for your career while making meaningful connections and change within our community
- Deepen your sense of belonging to a community
Partnership Agreement for UW-Superior Students (PASS Agreement)
As required by UW-System Policy, students need to have a Partnership Agreement for UW-Superior Students (PASS Agreement) on file before they begin internship, academic service-learning, community-based research, volunteering, or other types of community engagement experiences with an external organization. A PASS Agreement protects students and community partners from any risk and liability that could arise while they are working with one another.
We’re Here to Help
If you have any questions related to academic service-learning, don’t hesitate to reach out.