Finding the Best Fit: How Organizations Select Service Learners

Given the combined motives of community organization staff to both educate service learners and expand services to the community, how does a community organization find and recruit students who fit the bill? We know amazingly little about this question. Perhaps we have not considered the community's role in recruiting and selecting service learners because students historically have been recruited on the college campus and presented to the agencies. In this research, however, the organization staff were as likely to seek out students as they were to simply receive them. And the people the authors spoke to had plenty to say about the techniques, logistics, and various pros and cons of recruiting and choosing service learners to work with. Some of their comments and concerns presented in this chapter overlap with the themes of communication and expectations. But in terms of the nuts and bolts of "how to get people here to do stuff" at nonprofit agencies, there are a few distinct issues that deserve consideration in a separate space through a distinct lens. The issues the authors consider are: making the first contact; selecting and placing service learners; preferred service learner characteristics; and the role of organizations' expectations in selecting service learners. (authors)