Service Learning

Students at work Birmingham-Southern's service-learning program encourages students to grow personally and spiritually in service to others. . Each Interim Term offers one or more faculty-led service-projects as well as multiple independently designed projects. Previous projects include Methodist missions in Old Mutare, Zimbabwe, Africa, as well as those in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Calcutta, India, and Juiz de Fora, Brazil. On a recent trip to San Pedro Sulas, Honduras, Birmingham-Southern students worked with children of a local orphanage, visited Episcopal medical clinics near the diocesan camp, toured Spanish and Mayan ruins, and visited Roatan Island, the largest barrier reef in the Northern Hemisphere. Local service-learning opportunities are also offered.

Students attend weekly meetings of intense orientation during the fall term. They research topics related to the host country, its people, culture, and religion, and engage in training and team-building exercises. Evaluation is based on participation in the orientation sessions, a pre-trip presentation on some aspect of the host civilization, and on-site performance.

In January 2011, Service Learning projects will take place in San Francisco, CA and Woodlawn, AL.