Benefits of Service Learning in a Down-Turned Economy

With businesses struggling for resources during economic downturns, traditional business student internships were becoming more difficult to develop. One business school extended its experiential learning opportunities with specific management projects in community small business, healthcare, education, and nonprofit organizations. The on-campus service learning center provided project development, logistical support, and assessment for forty-five business students to participate in thirty-eight on-site, Human Resource Management projects. Means and standard deviations for self-report, end-of-semester surveys were determined for six Likert-scale items that measured the students' satisfaction with the project experience, and percentages were calculated of students who indicated specific personal and intellectual benefits derived from the projects. Most students reported favorable experiences with these non-traditional learning sites. Student projects developed management career choice information through the on-site application of their practitioner skills. They also benefited from their classroom reflections and interactions in sharing their problems, insights, and outcomes among their classmates. Students indicated they felt increased self-confidence, more comfortable about entering the working world, and more awareness of the linkages between the business and community service worlds. Through service learning, students gained experience in leadership, scholarship, and citizenship to become better members of their communities despite an economic downturn.