THE HISTORY OF SERVICE-LEARNING
AT UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MORRIS


Service-learning got its start on the Morris Campus in the summer of 1994 with the creation of the Morris Campus Compact office. Carol McCannon began serving as the Morris Campus Compact Coordinator.

In 1995 three UMM mathematics professors-Jon Anderson, Peh Ng, and Engin Sunger- received Minnesota Campus Compact SEAMS (Science, Architecture, Mathematics, and Computer Science) mini-grants to develop service-learning components for their math and statistics courses.  And in 1996 the Center for Small Towns, which has been instrumental in creating many service-learning projects in the region, was formed.  Using a three-year grant, members of the Center for Small Towns (CST) and the West Central Area School (WCAS) in Barrett, MN created the CommUniversity Collaborative Compact.  A team of UMM faculty and staff, WCSA school principals and teachers, and CST Director, Roger McCannon, identified three major areas of activity for the Compact: 1) Environmental Learning, 2) Communications and Computers, 3) YouthWorks mentoring.  Programs in this project included the development of an Environmental Learning Center which created an ecotrail, free community instruction on the use of computers and the Internet, including support for those towns interested in creating local web sites, and the creation of the YouthWorks mentoring program which pairs a university student with two fifth-graders at the WCAS.  During the first two years of the grant, UMM's YouthWorks service-learning projects were considered extra-curricular.  A goal of the 1998 YouthWorks project was to strengthen the learning component of the project.  This led to the development of an Interdisciplinary Studies course at UMM's University College.  In this course students learned how to create lesson plans, develop joint service projects, and to reflect critically about their service experiences.

From 1995-2003 Carol McCannon assisted several UMM faculty in establishing courses with a service component.

In August, 2000 with a proposal written by Anne Farrell, UMM received a Learn and Serve America Higher Education grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service.

In October 2004, UMM recieved a second Learn and Serve America Higher Education Grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service to deepen faculty, student, and community partner development and establish a long-term commitment to Service Learning, particularly in for focus areas.

Click here for a list of course-based service-learning courses at UMM, a description of the service connected with some of those courses and accounts of extra-curricular service.  Note that the extra-curricular service projects can be tied to course objectives in order to create course-based service-learning



*Campus Compact is a coalition of more than 500 college and university presidents who believe that institutions of higher education have a primary responsibility to foster students' sense of civic responsibility and contribute to the welfare of their communities.  Campus Compact works on the national level, but there are sixteen Campus Compact offices that were created at the state level, including the Minnesota Campus Compact office.  UMM gave its local service-learning organization the name Morris Campus Compact.

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Last Modified Tuesday October 12, 2004
Questions, Comments, Concerns send to manolis@morris.umn.edu