Service Learning Collaboratory

SLCE 5001
Offered fall and spring
Recommended for and open to any UC student
Credit hours: 3

The Service Learning Collaboratory gives you the opportunity to explore and meet a community need as part of a cross-disciplinary team charged with completing a specific project for an educational partner outside the University.

Each term, the model is the same but the partners change to cover a variety of industries and disciplines. You can expect relatively little traditional lecture; much of your learning occurs through interactions with peers, instructors, clients and expert guests. Your learning will be active, engaged, hands-on and real.

Saturday Hoops in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood lets kids be kids: Every Saturday morning, kids come to play basketball, make arts and crafts, do yoga, and enjoy similar activities in the company of adult volunteers who serve as role models. In the fall 2018 course, students are working on a public relations and marketing campaign to bring more attention and volunteers to Saturday Hoops.

In spring 2018, the Service Learning Collaboratory paired FC Cincinnati soccer players and staff with University of Cincinnati students and faculty, along with students and teachers from Carson Elementary in Lower Price Hill to address issues related to bullying and youth engagement. Through the Pay It Forward Student Philanthropy Grant, the course received funding to support the relaunching near the school of a “futsol” court, a space where communities can explore how to "Rise Together.”

This concept originated in relationships with the Mayerson Foundation’s High School Service Learning Program and two local high schools – Riverview East and Madeira. In the class, UC students and faculty worked with high school students and faculty to create digital storytelling projects that highlighted each high school’s service learning efforts. The final projects were showcased at an end of year celebration to which stakeholders from all participating campuses were invited.