A growing number of courses are incorporating service-learning pedagogy to combine classroom instruction and community experiences. Instructors select partnership sites to meet learning goals in the same way they would select a textbook, and these community partners become colleagues in service-learning through collaboration and reciprocity that meets the course objectives and community needs. 
Norma-May Isakow, director of Office for Service Learning, says students and faculty involved in service-learning courses report an enhanced appreciation both of community issues and assets. 
 
Some of the courses to be offered this fall include:
 
• Peer Education, incorporating the principles and skills underlying the SHAPE training developed by the UAB 1917 Clinic, is led by Retta Evans, Ph.D., associate professor of Health Education in the School of Education.

• Impacting Community through Service Learning, a freshman learning community, is a hands-on, experiential study of the helping professions through service with community agencies led by Angela Stowe, Ph.D., Service Learning Scholar and director, Disability Support Services, and Norma-May Isakow, director of Office for Service Learning.

• Sociology Practicum 488, a supervised community-service project in which students gain knowledge of society, practice critical thinking, examine the values and skills needed for effective citizenship and address some social problem or problems is led by Assistant Professor Harry Hamilton.
 
• Exploring Birmingham: In Search of Community, a freshman learning community seminar that examines the effects of physical spaces and design on the way we interact with each other and build community, is led by Rosie O’Beirne, Center for Urban Affairs program coordinator, and Christopher Reaves, Ph.D., director of the Office for Undergraduate Research.

• Dollars and Sense: An Introduction to Business, Economics, and Personal Finance, a freshman learning community to introduce students to the fundamentals of business and economics as they relate to everyday life and career goals to foster lifetime personal financial planning and a practical understanding of supply, demand and price determination is led by Stephanie Rauterkus, Ph.D., associate professor of business.

• Intro to Digital Community Studies, exploring the concept of community through the lens of urban redevelopment using digital applications and direct field experience, is led by Rosie O’Beirne, Center for Urban Affairs program coordinator.
 
For more information about service learning see www.uab.edu/servicelearning or contact Norma-May Isakow, Director of UAB Office for Service Learning.