Agencies

Agency partners facilitate service activities and provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to participate in and benefit from the service activity.

Benefits

Create a pool of future employees: students may view their service learning opportunity as a gateway to future employment within your agency.
Keep up with current trends: students offer the most current resources and technology available offered through their classes. As idealistic students, they offer a fresh approach to problems you may be facing within your institution.
Benefit from impressive marketing: students are the best way to spread the word about the services your agency provides. A beneficial experience with your agency can profit those you serve for years to come.
Build community awareness: Service learning promotes awareness, visibility, and appreciation and may initiate media opportunities, such as public interest stories.

Responsibilities

Community partners provide a service opportunity that complements student academic learning. The educational component is the key in service-learning. Feel free at any time to ask the student to reflect on their volunteer work, how it relates to their coursework, and how they are changing as a result. You are a co-educator in this process.

While working with a student, agencies should expect to:

Develop a well defined activity and service with specific program outcomes.
- Keep in mind that the projects must meet learning objectives for the course the student is enrolled in. You may plan specific projects with a faculty member or ask to see the course syllabus for learning objectives.
Devise a schedule with required hours for the student.
Provide an orientation and any necessary training needed to allow the student(s) to participate in the service learning activity.
Complete all required agency forms for the appropriate college campus.
Provide the student with necessary supervision during the project.
Evaluate the performance of the student and provide faculty feedback.

You may screen students (individuals and groups) as you would other volunteers. Questions may include:

What they hope to accomplish while serving with you.
What course they are doing this for and what the syllabus includes.
Why they chose your organization.

You can be a partner for as long as you would like to. At anytime, if the partnership is not working for you, let us know. You can request to be removed from the list at any time.

How to Become a Partner

If you are interested in becoming a service learning partner, contact campus service learning representatives for details.

Trinity River Community Partner Registration Form (PDF opens in new window)