FOR RELEASE: Sept. 28, 1999

CSUNšs Service Learning Center Receives Grant

Funds from the grant will support a website, www.csun.edu/~ocls99, which lists all courses at California State University, Northridge in which students can get academic credit for meaningful work in the community.

Currently, more than 50 courses in 23 academic disciplines contain community-service components through which students gain "real world experience" while mastering course concepts and addressing identified community needs.

Center director Maureen Rubin said research demonstrates that students in service-learning courses find their classwork more meaningful, have improved retention and become better critics of course theory. The students also have an enhanced sense of civic responsibility and a greater appreciation of the diverse communities in which they live.

The $3,500 grant is the last award in a three-year project entitled "Building a Foundation for Community-Service Learning." The total award of $12,500 from the California Campus Compact was given in concert with the Western Region Campus Compact Consortium and Learn and Serve America, a federal program that supports campus-based service-learning programs that directly and demonstrably benefit both the community served and the students who serve.

Previous funds from the grant were used to open Northridge's Center for Community-Service Learning last year and to support and train faculty starting new service-learning courses.

"We've made incredible progress in a very short time due to the enthusiasm of students and professors for the innovative type of student learning," Rubin said. "This grant will give us new ways to reach students and members of the community who are looking to work together for the benefit of both."