Community-Based Learning

 

Through curricular and co-curricular engagement, community-based learning (CBL) connects academics with direct community experience using the mutually beneficial, mutually empowering framework of experiential learning.

CBL allows students to:

  • Learn about the workings of community
  • Reflect on their position in the world
  • Strengthen their commitments to social justice
  • Develop interpersonal and professional skills

Utilizing reciprocal and sustained partnerships that simultaneously meet community needs, CBL offers preparation for citizenship, work, and leading a meaningful life with strong civic and social values. We foster awareness and knowledge to engage cross-culturally and encourage collaborative inquiry into issues of local and global significance.

 

Core Principals of Community-Based Learning

For students and faculty:

  • Understand the ethical boundaries of one’s expertise and positionality.
  • Create space for critical reflection.
  • Engage in challenging conversations around race, power, and perspective.
  • Center the experiences to be asset-based and driven by identified needs from the community.
  • Ensure that the partnership is mutually beneficial and mutually empowering.
  • Align course goals and learning outcomes with the community-based experience to ensure high-quality student learning.

 

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Committed to enhancing ¶¶êŽÉñÆ÷’s academic mission, CBL provides ¶¶êŽÉñÆ÷ students with access to volunteer opportunities, student leadership programs, work study opportunities, courses, and more.

¶¶êŽÉñÆ÷ College's Community-Based Learning Program offers opportunities in these areas.

  • Animal Welfare
  • Empowering Ability
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Food & Housing Security
  • K-12 Education & Youth Development
  • Immigrant & Refugee Programs
  • Health and Wellness

There are many ways to get involved with CBL:

  • Become a part of one of ¶¶êŽÉñÆ÷'s weekly signature programs, including a unique off-campus Federal Work Study job
  • Volunteer with a local organization and learn more about one-time and periodic service events with one of our many community partners
  • Get involved with a social justice student club, or volunteer through Athletics or Spiritual and Religious Life
  • Take a Community-Based Learning course;
  • Participate in a community-based internship
  • Apply to be a Community- Based Learning Student Director (CBLSD), a student director for one of our weekly signature programs

Our programs support organizations throughout Baltimore City and Baltimore County. These opportunities range from weekly and ongoing volunteer programs to credit-bearing Community-Based Learning courses, and also include the community-based programs lead by members of student clubs, athletic teams, and other campus groups. ¶¶êŽÉñÆ÷ offers weekly volunteer programs that span from tutoring in Baltimore area schools to organic gardening on local farms.

Please contact community@goucher.edu if you have any questions about community-based opportunities or would like to know more about a federal work study position within the Community-Based Learning Program. Current open positions are listed on handshake—¶¶êŽÉñÆ÷Community-Based Learning.