Background

In Chung Chi College, deeply rooted in Christian higher education traditions and ideals, the nurturing of a sense of community service has been an important element in the education of the College since its founding. In recent years, opportunities for the service-learning were explored and introduced. Chung Chi students were sponsored to attend service-learning projects abroad starting from 1995 and since then the College worked devotedly towards the direction of establishing its own programmes. A few years later in 2000, the Chung Chi College Local Service-Learning Programme was launched, followed by the Mainland and the International Service-Learning Programmes in 2004 and 2005 respectively. The local and mainland programmes are combined with the College general education course “Senior Seminar” for final-year students. In 2017, the two programmes are recognized as one of the College GE courses.

Objectives

Drawing on the more than a decade of rewarding experience and in order to further promote service-learning, Chung Chi College establishes the Service-Learning Centre in 2013/2014. The Centre has the following objectives:

1. To enhance students’ personal growth and prepare them to be informed, responsible citizens and civic leaders, through instilling the set of core qualities including values,knowledge, skills, critical and reflective thinking, and commitment, etc.
2. To benefit society by bringing in high-level expertise and resources from the tertiary education sector that address community needs.
3. To contribute to academic research on service-learning as a subject of study, and its application and impacts.

The Centre is responsible for:

• organizing the Local, Mainland and International Service-Learning Programmes of the College.
• offering advice and support to voluntary work projects and short-term service trips initiated by student societies and alumni groups.
• Holding symposiums, seminars and training workshops, on the aspect of professional development, for scholars, teachers and administrators from local and mainland universities, secondary schools, as well as social workers from non-government organizations, etc.
• collaborating with academics and provide support on research projects.
• Collecting and maintaining of literature materials related to service-learning including journal articles, brochures and bulletins.

What is Service-Learning?

Service-learning is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address community needs together with structured opportunities for reflection designed to achieve desired learning outcomes (Jacoby, 1996).

In Chung Chi College, we expect students to be able to achieve the following learning outcomes by the end of the course:

• apply their (discipline) knowledge and generic skills to address community needs;
• acquire skills to work efficiently and effectively with others;
• evaluate one’s own strengths and limitations, and identify areas that need further development for personal growth;
• develop a sense of citizenship and community service including the cultivation of social responsibility, civic engagement, attention and action for the needy;
• develop information literacy and foundations for lifelong learning;
• demonstrate active and rational collaboration in group discussion; and
• demonstrate personal and social soft skills, and the ability to work in inter-disciplinary teams.

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