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What benefits can be expected from involvement in community engagement and service?

Community service and other forms of community engagement provide a variety of unique benefits to the students, the communty and to the organizations where students volunteer. Research has shown that student learning, personal skills, and professional development will increase when students invest more of their out-of-class time and energy in educationally purposeful activities such as community service.  Also, the community gains resources and services that would otherwise be unavailable.

One of the mottos CESL uses to promote community service is "Give a little. You'll get back so much more." This is especially true for the personal benefits derived from volunteer service. It has been shown that service activities have a unique way of developing an individual's leadership skills, sense of community, self-esteem, and other personal characteristics.

In terms of career growth, many service activities provide students with the opportunity to explore possible careers, experience the "real-world" of their chosen career field, develop professional skills and contacts, build their resume, and put into practice the information they have learned in academic settings.

  With every community service activity or project comes the explicit or implicit goal of improving the lives of individuals in our community.  Community service efforts are designed to help individuals and/or groups deal with various issues confronting our society.  Also, for every act of service there is a ripple effect that ultimately results in some degree of benefit to the entire community.

Finally, the organizations where you conduct your service work also benefit enormously. Non-profit agencies and government programs generally deal with limited budgets and exceptionally high worloads.  Volunteers can make significant contributions to these agencies in their attempt to deal with the complex and growing needs of society.

For more information, email Chris Fiorentino