About the Office of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement
The Office of Service-Learning & Civic Engagement (SLCE) develops, guides, and coordinates community engagement efforts for the entire FGCU campus. With a service-learning graduation requirement for all undergraduate students, service-learning is integrated into classes, student organizations, FGCU offices, and all of campus culture. SLCE also facilitates the promotion of service opportunities through Eagle Link, as well as the tracking, verification, and reporting of all service-learning experiences via Eagle Service Network. To provide deep intentionality with each service-learning experience, the SLCE integrates the following core frameworks into all programming and initiatives: the Social Change Model, the Active Citizen Continuum, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the NACE Career Readiness Skills.
To support this deep integration of service-learning, the SLCE conducts nearly 40 classroom presentations and campus wide workshops each year. Additionally, the SLCE trains and collaborates with faculty for nearly 275 classes a year that are designated with a service-learning attribute in the course catalog (search SRVC attribute in the course catalog) as well as advisors and student leaders for over 100 student organizations that each integrate service-learning.
The SLCE also trains, coordinates, and manages relationships with over 300 community agencies to help them meaningfully connect with campus, including projects with faculty and students, participation in service-learning fairs, annual day-of-service events, an annual showcase of award-winning service-learning projects, and more. Since its inception, FGCU students have engaged in over 3.2 million hours of service-learning and continue to add approximately 275,000 additional hours each year.
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What is Service-Learning?
Toggle More InfoService-learning is a method of teaching, learning, and reflecting that combines academic classroom curriculum with meaningful service that meets actual needs in the community. (1) As one form of experiential learning, service-learning enriches the learning experience, teaches civic responsibility, encourages lifelong civic engagement, and strengthens communities. Service-learning is reciprocal as both the server and those being served are teaching and learning during their interaction. According to The National and Community Service Act of 1990, “Service-learning experiences put abstract classroom concepts into concrete form and provide meaningful opportunities to test and refine theories while helping to meet basic community needs.” Additionally, according to The Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), the incorporation of service-learning in higher education is a “high impact practice” that increases content knowledge, higher-order thinking, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, career skills, civic responsibility, and academic success.
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Our Frameworks
Toggle More InfoUnited Nation's Sustainable Development Goals
National Association of Colleges and Employers Career Readiness and Competencies
Not concerned with their role in social problems.
Well-intentioned but not well-educated about social issues.Concerned with discovering root causes; asks why?Community becomes a priority in values and life choices.
Social Change Model
- Consciousness of Self
- Congruence
- Commitment
- Collaboration
- Common Purpose
- Controversy with Civility
- Citizenship
Awareness of the beliefs, values, attitudes, and emotions that motivate one to take action.Thinking, feeling, and behaving with consistency, genuineness, authenticity, and honesty.Motivational energy to serve and that drives the collective effort. Commitment implies passion, intensity, and duration.
Working with others in a common effort. It constitutes the cornerstone value of the group leadership effort because it empowers self and others through trust.
Working with shared aims and values. It facilitates the group’s ability to engage in collective analysis of the issues at hand and the task to be undertaken.Recognizes two fundamental realities of any creative group effort: that differences in viewpoint are inevitable, and that such difference must be aired openly but with civility.Process whereby the individual and the collaborative group become responsibly connected to the community and the society through the leadership experience.
Four Types of Service
This can be anything on site or in the community. We call this the boots on the ground service type. You could be playing soccer with youth, planting trees, tutoring, assisting at a hospital, and much more.
Indirect could be considered the behind the scenes work. You could be creating a program for a school, organizing a collection drive, creating a social media/marketing plan, writing a blog, calling nurseries for donation, and much more.
Speak up and speak out for your organizations. You could hold a community information night, attend a city council meeting, run social media platforms, table on/off campus, lead presentations, and much more.
Help your organizations by collecting, organizing, or compiling data. You could pull together information on best practices, lesson plans, supporting documents. This could also be scientific research, surveying sea turtle nests, documenting migratory birds, and much more.
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Service-Learning Graduation Requirement
Toggle More InfoService-learning at FGCU is integrated through a graduation requirement. Service-learning must be completed with a registered nonprofit or government agency.
Learn more about the graduation requirement.
Learn more about the parameters for completing service-learning hours using this document.
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Career Readiness
Toggle More InfoService-learning experiences help students develop and refine the same skills that employers are seeking from recent college graduates. (2) FGCU cares deeply about each student as well as the communities in which they will soon live. The FGCU service-learning requirement sets students up with an advantage through these experiences that can put them above other candidates when applying to jobs and graduate schools. At the same time, FGCU graduates leave with a deeper understanding and level of positive engagement in the world around them.
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Our Team
Toggle More InfoOffice of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
Florida Gulf Coast University
McTarnaghan Hall 229
10501 FGCU Blvd. S. Fort Myers, FL 33965Open: 8am-5pm
Email: servicelearning@fgcu.edu
Phone: 239-590-7023
Having worked for several years on community development programs with nonprofits across the country, it’s safe to say community engagement efforts run deep for Justin. A unique career path of nonprofits, politics, and even a stint as a Co-Op at NASA eventually led him back to college campuses. Once in higher education, Justin began in residential education but was soon drawn back to his love of community engagement and service-learning. He most recently served six years as the Assistant Director of the Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement at the University of South Florida - Tampa. Although he was raised and attended undergrad in Cleveland, Justin also lived in DC and Indiana before moving to Tampa. When not at work, Justin can be found enjoying time outdoors, at a community meeting, attempting some creative project, or jamming to a “Best of the 80s and 90s” playlist with his wife and two-year-old son!Director of Community EngagementOffice: McTarnaghan Hall - Rm 230Phone: 239-590-7031E-mail: jfitzgerald@fgcu.edu
Lisa is a former New Yorker whose love for warmth and sun drew her to Florida's sandy shores. She is a graduate of FGCU, earning her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing minor. She has a passion for music, gardening, bees, writing, Netflix, and being of service to others. If she could, Lisa would have way more than two dogs, because 'Rescue' is her favorite breed. She also adores puns, corny jokes, a good pencil, and the Oxford comma. She is secretly fascinated by dreams of world domination. If you ask what plans she has for the next 10 years Lisa would tell you, "The same plans I had for the last 10, to try and take over the world."
Coordinator, Student ProgressOffice: McTarnaghan Hall - Rm 228Phone: 239-590-7015E-mail: lpaige@fgcu.edu
VACANTCoordinator, Service-LearningVACANTProgram Assistant
Autumn BradleyOffice AssistantJosh BernardinOffice AssistantEvan ClementeOffice AssistantPaula BeltranService AmbassadorJonathan WukitschEagle Link CoordinatorLiyah KingPromotions CoordinatorVACANTFederal Work Study CoordinatorVACANTGraphic DesignerChosen Iverson-WilsonSustainability CoordinatorKelly MaguireStudent Service CoordinatorCreflo AdderleyStudent Service CoordinatorMarena SanojaEducation Ambassador/Student Service CoordinatorLanden BoldStudent Service Support