Institutionalizing Service Learning in Community Colleges

This research brief analyzes the institutionalization of service-learning programs in 90 community colleges. In 1994 and again in 1997, AACC selected groups of institutions, known as Horizons colleges, to work together in collaborative mentoring relationships to build campus-based service-learning programs. While the number of service-learning programs at community colleges has grown significantly in the past 5 years, not all of those programs are sustained by colleges for the long term. This paper presents the results of a survey to determine how community colleges successfully integrate service learning into institutional culture, climate, and expectations so that it can be sustained.