Learning in the Real World
By nature, true education doesn’t ever stop in the classroom—but in the RC, our commitment to going beyond pure knowledge has led our students and faculty all over—Moscow, Berlin, and Mexico to name a few.
The RC curriculum, encourages students to venture out into the world and find new ways of learning, exchanging knowledge and contributing. In addition to the plethora of study abroad opportunities available at the U of M, the RC offers extensive community engagement opportunities in four general areas. Students can find meaningful community work in the areas of Children and Youth; Community Arts; Language and Immigration; and Organizing and Community Development.
Click here for more information about these opportunities.
Tying all of these overlapping categories together is the RC Community Collaborative (RC3), an integrated web of community-based projects and network of faculty, students, and organizations attempting to redefine what service learning in the RC means. A valuable service-learning experience leaves a student deeply invested in the community, and committed in the long-term to his or her project. The RC3 aims to seek out and groom civic-minded leaders of the future, making sure that community-based learning is not just a matter of logging volunteer hours. Each student must give something truly valuable to the organization served – the relationship must truly be mutually beneficial – and each experience must impart needed skills students will later reinvest in their community.
The RC3 hopes to foster the inclusion of new community-based projects whenever possible. Some well-developed projects started out as a one-student endeavor, and we strongly encourage students to get involved in the RC3, and to come forward with their own projects and ideas.
For more information, contact Craig Regester, RC Outreach Coordinator, regester@umich.edu.
Additional community engagement links:
