International Service-Learning

Program Overview | El Salvador 2009 | Oaxaca 2005 | Oaxaca 2006

EVC International Service-Learning is designed to provide outstanding SJECC students who have participated in Service-Learning or community service with the opportunity to enhance their global and inter-cultural understanding while serving in marginalized communities in poor, underdeveloped countries.  The initiative is rooted in theories of experiential education and social justice.  Our primary objectives are to:

• Provide students who traditionally do not receive opportunities for international travel, and who are “at-risk” from the effects of marginalization in education to participate in grassroots, hands-on learning.
• Educate and motivate students through direct personal experience with disadvantaged, oppressed, and marginalized individuals in order to foster cross-cultural awareness, understanding, compassion, and respect for diverse cultural expressions, as well as an appreciated for global interconnectedness.
• To apply what the students learned abroad to our local community.  Each international trip is followed by a local community project, which is designed to put the new knowledge to use in our community. 
• To promote critical thinking, intellectual inquiry, moral reflection, and commitment to social justice.

Funding for this initiative is the result of dynamic partnership between students, the colleges and community.