The Why of Service-Learning for the Masses

Many service-learning programs are designed for the elite students: strongly motivated, with the resources (time, finances, skills) needed.  This is particularly true for challenging projects in far away places.  There are many reasons for it.  Many educators believe that service-learning should be voluntary.  It is also easier to design and manage projects for students who are motivated and have the resources, obviously.  

At PolyU, we cater for these elites students.  But we also make SL accessible to all other students. In fact, we make it compulsory for all undergraduate students, which is unusual.  The biggest reason is that we believe SL benefits all students.  And the world needs leaders at all levels who care about the common good.  There is research which tells us that the smartest in government and industry do not necessarily have similarly strong interest in the common good.  Service-Learning has demonstrated benefits in nurturing students with a stronger commitment to social responsibility.  If we can nurture more university graduates with a stronger interest in the common good, it can create a bugger impact in society, as opposed to leaving SL to the small number of elite students.  This is the fundamental reason behind our push for SL for the masses.  

This objective, needless to say, create big challenges. One of the most obvious is that our teams can be big, quite a bit bigger than what many people are used to, even for challenging projects in far away places.  For example, in summer 2023, we plan to send ~100 staff and students to Rwanda, comprised of multiple teams from PolyU and several of our partner universities from across multiple countries, and high school students in Hong Kong. There are also going to be relatively large teams sent to Cambodia, and other countries.  

It is hugely challenging to find partners and project sites that can accommodate such large teams. Just transporting, feeding and finding accommodation for such large teams is a big challenge, particularly in the poorer communities where the need is the greatest.  But the benefits are also obvious.  With larger, multi-national and multi-talented teams, more can be done, and more students can benefit.  For this reason, we are willing to work hard, very hard, to make it happen.