Our Service-Learning Requirement and How Student Leaders Are Catalysts for Creating "Nonprofits" that Meet Student and Community Needs

This session will present a student-driven model for institutionalizing service-learning through the creation of student-led nonprofit organizations. Since 1994, the University of Redlands has required all students to complete a service-learning internship. Over three decades, the Office of Community Service Learning has partnered with community-based organizations while identifying unmet community needs through student reflections and assessments. Leveraging campus resources—particularly student leadership—the office developed service programs that have evolved into student-run nonprofits addressing youth mentoring, tutoring, and urban farming.

These nonprofits provide structured service placements and hands-on leadership experiences in nonprofit governance and civic engagement. Presenters—the founding administrator of the office and the assistant dean of experiential learning—will share successes, challenges, and data from thirty years of implementation.
The session will emphasize adaptability and offer strategies for institutions of all sizes to embed peer-led, mission-driven service-learning into curricula. Attendees will explore ways to translate this scalable, equity-centered model to their own institutional contexts.