Service-Learning at Augsburg College

About Augsburg College Augsburg College, founded in 1869, is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Its 23-acre campus is located one mile from downtown Minneapolis in the historic Cedar Riverside neighborhood, Minnesota’s “Ellis Island.”

Basic Information about Augsburg College Statistics(2010): Undergraduate Students 3,101 Graduate Students 892 Full Time Faculty 200 The college’s motto is “Education for Service.”

Service-Learning at Augsburg Augsburg faculty and staff have been engaged in service-learning since the 1980’s. Augsburg is a founding member and host institution for Minnesota Campus Compact. The Education Department received its first grant to study and implement service-learning in teacher education in 1993.

Teacher Education and S-L In 1997, the Department of Education was selected by the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) as one of six institutions to participate in the Service-Learning and Teacher Education (SLATE) grant which enabled Augsburg to become a national leader in the integration of service-learning into teacher education. This work continues with Augsburg's participation in the International Center for Service-Learning in Teacher Education and EASL.

Augsburg’s Model for Integrating Service-Learning into Teacher Education Erickson, J. & Bayless, M.A. (1995). Integrating Service-Learning Into Teacher Education, Expanding Boundaries: Serving to Learn, 1, 1.

Recognition and Awards For its efforts at promoting service-learning, the Augsburg Education Department was recognized by the Governor's Youth Leadership Council as being one of the State of Minnesota's 30 outstanding youth service programs. In its recent accreditation review, Augsburg was cited by the NCATE and Minn. Board of Teaching review teams for its exemplary efforts at service- learning integration.

EASL Project Activity – Year One In 2011, Augsburg began collaborating on the EASL Project. Augsburg will work during the first year of the grant to strengthen its S-L model and review policies and procedures that enhance and hinder S-L integration.

EASL Project Activity – Year One (cont.) We are in the process of hiring one of the college’s first graduate assistants; a Master of Education student who will work closely with our project participants to review and strengthen S-L integration within our courses. Three full time Augsburg Education faculty will attend this year’s NYLC Conference.

EASL Project Plans – Years Two and Three In years 2-3, we will disseminate our findings to other teacher education institutions in the Twin Cities and beyond. One of the major outlets for our dissemination efforts is the ten-year Bush Foundation funded project called TC2 in which Augsburg is a founding partner.

EASL Project Plans – Years Two and Three (cont.) The TC2 Urban Teacher Residency Program is designed to recruit, prepare and support strong, effective new teachers. It is a full-year residency program partnership of two urban K-12 school districts and six higher education institutions. TC2 is part of an effort initiated in 2009 by the Bush Foundation to establish a new paradigm for teaching and learning – to improve teacher effectiveness as a means to close the achievement gap.

Resources to Share An online Service-Learning Resource Guide is available for students to assist them in developing their skills using service-learning. It explains how to set up successful service-learning experiences in K- 12 settings and has many helpful suggestions. The website will be updated this summer.