How can I as a faculty member find time for service-learning with the demands to do research?

Service-learning activities can benefit your research initiatives as well as local communities and your students. It usually begins by finding a match between your interests, a local community need and course content. Students can assist with needs assessment or data collection as part of a service learning project. By including students in the process, you offer them the opportunity to learn about research procedures.

Clemson Public Health Professor Cheryl Dye involved her Health 341 Honors students in a tobacco education program for local public school students. She shared the design of the course at one national conference presentation, shared the data analysis at another conference and used the program design and data analysis results in a pilot study to include in a funding proposal to the National Institutes of Health for an expanded research project.