Faculty Resources

The Faculty Advisory Board was created to oversee and maintain the academic integrity of the Academic Service-Learning program at St. John's. Members of the Faculty Advisory Board serve as academic consultants, responsible for furthering the Academic Service-Learning pedagogy and the University Mission within their individual colleges.

Please feel free to contact the representative from your college for more information on how to best include academic service-learning in your discipline.

AS-L Faculty Advisory Board 

Before the Semester: 

• Fill out the AS-L Registration form by clicking on this link.
• Schedule a meeting to discuss how to best incorporate AS-L into your course, what type of service and which community partners are most appropriate to work with, and how your students can reflect on their service.
• Set a deadline for your students to complete their AS-L projects. The deadline to complete service is on the University Study Day but we encourage you to set an earlier deadline if possible.
• If AS-L is going to be optional for the students in your class, develop a comparable assignment for the students who will not be participating in the AS-L project. Make sure the assignment is equally as rigorous and will take the same amount of time to complete.
• Include AS-L in your course outline and be prepared to let your students know about their assignment at the start of the semester.

Start of Semester:

• Schedule an AS-L orientation for your students in your classroom during the first few weeks of the semester.
• Plan to visit the community partner(s) that your students will be serving with (optional).

Mid Semester:

• Check in with your students to ensure they have all made a connection with a service site and have started their service.

End of Semester

• Fill out the online AS-L end of semester survey which will be sent to you via email towards the end of the semester.
• Evaluate the AS-L assignment to see what worked and what could be improved upon going forward. Contact the Office of AS-L to discuss plans for the next semester.

We recommend including a description of the AS-L assignment in your course outline to best situate AS-L in the context of the course and to give students sufficient time to schedule service.

Be sure to include the following information on the academic service-learning project:

• How the service experience will help the students better understand a learning objective of the course
• What type of service the students will be completing and where they can go to complete their service
• The number of hours that the students will be required to serve
• The deadlines by when the AS-L service and reflection assignments should be completed 
• Information on the reflection assignment designed to help students make a connection between their service and the course learning objectives

Please feel free to copy and paste this sample verbiage in your syllabus or course outline:

Academic Service-Learning at St. John’s University is a classroom/experiential site- based program that involves students in some form of required community service activity and uses that activity as a means of understanding course concepts. It is a pedagogical approach whereby students engage in a service activity that benefits the common (public) good. The service activity meets course objectives, and through reflection students examine issues pertaining to justice and identity.

Academic Service-Learning is a requirement of this course. All students must complete _____________ hours of service at ______________ by________. Reflection is an important component of AS-L since it provides the opportunity to link what students learn in the service project to what they learn in the classroom.  The reflection of the AS-L experience will be in the form of a ________________ (presentation, paper, etc.) and will be the graded component of the AS-L assignment. The AS-L assignment  is due on ____ and will be  ______% of the total course grade. 


 

Reflection links the student’s service experience with the learning goals and objectives of your course, and is the graded component of AS-L. Reflection increases student’s critical thinking and problem solving skills while helping them to better understand the course material.

The most popular forms of reflection include papers, presentations, and class discussions. Many faculty assign the students a pre-service reflection assignment so that the students can discuss their preconceived ideas about the population they will be serving. As part of the final reflection, students can then look back and see if their perceptions towards the population they served have changed. We are happy to meet with you to help you design a reflection assignment for your course.

Four Stage Reflection Process
Please also feel free to review this four stage reflection process while creating your reflection assignment:
Reflection Process

Reflection Rubric
A reflection rubric has been adapted by Dr. Barrett Brenton, Professor of Anthropology, for grading reflection assignments. Please feel free to use this as a resource when you are designing and grading your student’s reflection assignments.
Reflection Rubric
 

We are available to facilitate a brief introduction to Academic Service-Learning in your classroom at the start of each semester. We can explain what AS-L is and show your students the procedure for starting their service. We can also walk students through the GivePulse System so that they can record their hours and have their logged hours approved. If you are unable to coordinate a live presentation with the AS-L office, feel free to show your students this video for an introduction to Academic Service-Learning.
In addition to a classroom orientation, students will benefit from this packet of written Givepulse tutorials for specific information regarding Givepulse (browsing service sites, registering for service, logging hours). For student teachers in the School of Education, please view this tutorial.

GivePulse is the new Academic Service-Learning reporting platform.  All AS-L service opportunities and community service sites can be viewed in GivePulse. Students sign up for service and report service hours in GivePulse and faculty can monitor students' compliance and progress with their AS-L course component in GivePulse. We are excited for the user-friendly nature and practicality of this new system. Following you will find video tutorials and step by step instructions to help you and your students navigate the GivePulse system. 

GivePulse tutorial videos for faculty:  

• How to access GivePulse and monitor your students' progress, please click here. 

Step by step instructions for faculty:

• Accessing GivePulse and finding a service site
• Monitoring students' AS-L progress in GivePulse 

GivePulse tutorial videos for students: 

• How to access GivePulse and register for service, please click here.
• How to log an impact or update/edit an impact, please click here. 
• For all tutorials, please click here.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions:

Office of Academic Service-Learning
Lourdes Hall, Queens Campus
Phone Number: 718-990-8331
Fax Number: 718-990-3441
[email protected]

Each year, one St. John’s University faculty member is awarded the Academic Service-Learning Faculty Award at the Faculty Convocation before the start of the fall semester. Nominations for the award are made by our Faculty Advisory Board and reviewed by an award selection committee.

Past recipients of the Academic Service-Learning Faculty Award include:

For more information on the Academic Service-Learning Faculty Award, please contact Lynn Stravino at 718-990-7902 or [email protected].

The Academic Service-Learning Faculty Development Mini Grant is intended to support the integration of service experiences with the curricular objectives of existing and new course offerings.  The grant in the amount of $1,000.00 is intended to help faculty develop new and expand existing academic service-learning initiatives for the upcoming academic year.  Individual class initiatives/projects are encouraged. However, preference will be given to proposals that develop sustainable, long-term AS-L projects which last at least one year, and can originate within a department, a college or across colleges within the University. 

Eligibility 

Full-time faculty, part-time faculty and professional teaching staff are eligible to apply for this grant.  Applicants can be individuals or collaborations.  Faculty may only apply for one mini-grant per academic year. 

Application process 

Applications will become available in the spring semester. The application deadline is typically the end of April and awards are distributed by July 1st. 

Criteria for Mini-Grant Proposal 

• Explanation of how the AS-L experience will relate to the academic content of the course.  Service activities must be appropriate to class content and the faculty member’s discipline. 
• Details of the service project, which demonstrate learning and the fulfillment of course objectives through relevant academic activity.
• Description of how the project contributes to developing student insight and concern for societal needs as articulated in the St. John’s University Mission Statement and Core Values.
• Evidence of the reciprocal relationship of the University (including faculty and students) and the community partner.    
• Description of the process that the faculty member and community partner followed to develop the AS-L project, identify mini-grant funding needs, and plan to promote student learning and benefits to the community partner.    
• A letter of support and signed agreement by community partner.

2021-2022 AS-L Mini-Grant Recipients 

Please click here to read more about each of the awarded projects. 

Please see below for articles and presentations on academic service-learning made by our own St. John's faculty members:

Bullying: University Students Bring a Moral Perspective to Middle School Students by May Webber, Division of Humanities at St. John's University

The Road to Successful Academic Service-Learning Projects: Making The Right Choices (PDF) by Richard Scorce

Development of an Academic Service-Learning HIV Professional Elective Course for Pharmacy Students (PDF) presented at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Annual Meeting in July 2013 by John M. Conry, Pharm.D., BCPS, AAHIVP, Tina J. Kanmaz, Pharm.D., Tomasz Z. Jodlowski, Pharm.D., BCPS (AQ-ID), AAHIVP

The development of a feeding, swallowing and oral care program using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model in an orphanage-hospital in Guatemala (PDF) by Nancy Colodny, Lauren Miller, and Mary Faralli

Navigating Service in Untenured Waters: What it Means to be a Service-Learning Mentor (PDF) by Mary Beth Schaefer and Tracy J. Cannova

An Academic Service Learning (AS-L) Activity within an Undergraduate Course in Pharmacology (PDF) by Blase Billack 

Awareness of the Profession of Audiology Among Ethnically Diverse Adolescents: A Pre- and Post-Education Study (PDF) by Shruti Balvalli Deshpandea.

The Office of Academic Service-Learning has an extensive lending library. We encourage faculty to review the titles below or visit our library. If you are interested in a reading a publication from the list below, please contact Lynn Stravino at 718-990-7902 or [email protected] and we can interoffice a copy to your office.

Please click on the links below to review articles on Academic Service-Learning.

Academic Service-Learning and Student Learning

• Does Service-Learning Increase Student Learning? (PDF)
• A Meta-analysis of the Impact of Service-Learning on Students (PDF)
• Improving Student Learning with AS-L (PDF)

Academic Service-Learning and Social Justice

• Teaching for social justice: An ambiguous and uncertain endeavor (PDF)
• Social Justice and Pedagogy (PDF)
• Understanding Education for Social Justice (PDF)

Academic Service-Learning and Student Development

• The Influence of Service Learning on Students’ Personal and Social Development (PDF)
• Teaching and Learning in the Social Context: A Meta-Analysis of Service Learning’s Effects on Academic, Personal, Social, and Citizenship Outcomes (PDF)
• A Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Service-Learning on the Social, Personal, and Cognitive Outcomes of Learning (PDF)

Academic Service-Learning Reflection

• Reflection: Linking Service and Learning—Linking Students and Communities (PDF)

Academic Service-Learning in K-12 Education

• What Teacher Candidates Learned about Diversity, Social Justice, and Themselves From Service-Learning Experiences (PDF)

Additional Reading

• Advancing the Vincentian (PDF)

Publishing Resources and Journals on Academic Service-Learning

• Research in Service Learning: Publishing Opportunities Resource List (PDF)
• Community Engagement Publication Outlets, University of Idaho 
• National Civic Review
• Journal for Community Engagement and Scholarship
• Compact Current 
• Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
• The International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement
• Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement
• Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement
• Public: A Journal of Imagining America

• Campus Compact
• New York & Pennsylvania Campus Compact
• The National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
• Imagining America
• Corporation for National and Community Service; Service Learning Resources
• Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning
• International Association for Research on Service Learning & Civic Engagement 
   

Click here for an orientation video to share with your online students about Academic Service-Learning. Here are the introduction letter and intake form to provide to your students living outside of New York City. Please edit the highlighted portions in the Introduction letter and have students return the intake form to you for approval.

Office of Academic Service-Learning
Vincentian Institute for Social Action

Louis Saavedra, Assistant Director
718-990-6499
[email protected]

Lorraine Wright, Coordinator
718-990-3415
[email protected]

Reach out to AS-L Graduate Assistants:
718-990-8331
[email protected]