Center for Service-Learning
The Center for Service-Learning is committed to engaging students in challenging academic work and the promotion of the common good as understood in our Catholic, Benedictine tradition by implementing service-learning opportunities for the faculty, students, and community partners of Benedictine College.
Want to volunteer or post a need? We use the GivePulse platform to promote and organize service opportunities.
About the Center
![Student volunteers working on a housing jobsite](/wp-content/uploads/import/images/academics/centers/service-learning/spread-service-learning-1.jpg)
Get Involved
![A set of ceramic bowls laid out on a table](/wp-content/uploads/import/images/academics/centers/service-learning/spread-service-learning-2.jpg)
Center Newsletter
![A student volunteer works with a sander and a piece of wood](/wp-content/uploads/import/images/academics/centers/service-learning/spread-service-learning-3.jpg)
Following the Transforming Culture in America Strategic Plan, the Center for Service-Learning provides for the following key areas of Formation, Extension and Profession.
Formation
- In Fall 2021, there were 20 different service-learning courses (25 sections) being offered in 11 different academic departments, in partnership with approximately 20 community service agencies and organizations.
- The Center for Service-Learning also supports co-curricular service-learning endeavors connected with clubs, Discovery Day, etc.
Extension
- The Center for Service-Learning took a lead role in the Spring 2022 Field Day, a morning of fun physical activity for people of all ability levels. Co-sponsored with Achievement Services, Special Olympics Kansas, and the Special Needs Ministry of the Archdiocese of Kansas City.
- The Center for Service-Learning helps organize the Kansas Service and Civic Engagement conference, which provides a space for college students from Kansas (or nearby states) to share their community engagement work, connect with like-minded students, and gain practice in presenting in an academic conference setting.
- The Center reaches out to local audiences through an extensive social media presence and a regular newsletter.
Profession
- Students gain valuable skills in applying academic learning to address community needs.
- Students’ projects provide valuable experience that applies to career goals later on.
- In service-learning courses, students develop relationships with the supervisors and employees at their service site, thus expanding their professional contacts.
Director
Meredith Doyle is the founding director of the Center for Service-Learning. Before entering the field of higher education in 2016, she worked for the Archdiocese of Denver. She also led recurring opportunities for college students to volunteer with homeless individuals through programs such as Denver Homeless Ministry and Christ in the City. Her desire to serve brought her to Latin America as a missionary several times, including a summer at Cruz Blanca, a camp for at-risk youth in Peru. She has a particular interest in language education for refugees and migrants and is currently pursuing an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, UK.
mdoyle@sjkt.net
(o) 913.360.7227
(c) 913.360.0296
Library 207