Welcome! Faculty Member
Overview

The Service Learning Program, housed within the Institute for Urban Life, was created in the spring of 1994 to facilitate service learning in selected courses and departments throughout the University. The program was initiated by Andy Tallon (Professor, Philosophy Department), who had been sending his Philosophy of Community students into the community for the previous 25 years. His efforts, along with the assistance of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs enabled Marquette to receive federal funding to launch the Service Learning Program at Marquette.

As it is conceived and practiced here at Marquette, there are three basic components to effective service learning:

• Preparation: setting objectives for skills to be learned or issues to consider, planning meaningful service projects to meet those objectives and to benefit the agencies being served, and orienting students to the Project and to the work they will be doing;
• Action: committing to and performing scheduled community service;
• Reflection: analyzing and discussing the deeper messages and issues arising from the service, drawing from theories learned in class. Ideally this reflection occurs within the classroom setting in two manners: 1) individually, as the students prepare their service learning papers and/or oral presentations, and 2) in class discussions, where the professor helps the students make the connection between the service experiences and the course material.