Service-Learning

Service-learning and community engagement have been a part of CSU life from the time that the first campus opened in 1857. They are teaching and learning techniques providing situated and anchored student participation.

This participation in meaningful and planned community-service experiences directly relates to course content extending learning beyond the theoretical. Through engagement and reflective activities, students enhance their understanding of course content and develop their civic responsibility, self-awareness, and leadership skills.

The mission of Cal Maritime's Community Engagement Office is to be a driving and innovative force that advances our campus' commitment to serving our surrounding communities, and enabling our students to engage in critical inquiry and hands-on service.

Cal Maritime is well suited for implementing service-learning courses. Our technical curriculum has always embraced a hands-on approach to learning and leadership training. We think of our Training Ship Golden Bear as being a living laboratory.

Additionally, there exists a long history of cadets providing service to the community, both at home in Vallejo and overseas, in places as far away as Fiji and Chile.

To enhance student learning through connections between academic course work and real world applications, preparing students to succeed in diverse local and global economies, and enriching personal, professional, and social responsibilities. Research shows that faculty find that service-learning provides:

  • Increased satisfaction with quality of student-learning
  • Increased commitment to research
  • Motivation to increasingly integrate service-learning more deeply into more courses
  • More lively class discussions and increased student participation
  • Increased student retention of course material
  • Increased student awareness of community and "real world" issues
  • Increase in innovative approaches to classroom instruction
  • Increased opportunities for research and publication
  • Increase in faculty awareness of community issues

  • Enhance academic learning by allowing students to apply their classroom learning and to appreciate the connections between their academic coursework and the community
  • Contribute to civic and moral learning by increasing students' understanding of both the richness and the problems of our community
  • Contribute to professional learning by introducing students to potential careers while helping them to develop the social awareness and understanding necessary for effective professional development

  • Service projects or activities must meet community-identified needs.
  • Service projects must require interaction between students and community and/or partners.
  • Service projects or activities must link to course content and/or learning outcomes.
  • The course must have a formal reflection component (paper or presentation) that relates the service to course content and/or learning outcomes.
  • Student placements and community partnerships must follow campus guidelines available at the Community Engagement Office.