Accent on Student Success: Engaged Together in Service

The Accent on Student Success: Engaged Together in Service (ASSETS) grant activities initiated formal service-learning in 2006 for general education at Tohono O'odham Community College. Service-learning, by definition, fits right into the Himdag of the Tohono O'odham, and is part of the traditional way of life. Any people or culture that have managed to live for hundreds of years in the desert must have had certain values, skills and knowledge to survive, specifically by sharing and helping one another. Traditionally, young people learned to work together to help the elders, families, communities and each other. The Tohono O'odham maintain a strong, historical work ethic, of which service-learning is part and parcel, and not a new concept at all.