The Service Learning Initiative, which began on campus in 2014, supports faculty, students, and community partners who engage in experiential learning opportunities that meet the criteria for the award. Service Learning courses are offered regularly in all six colleges, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, and the School of Law. This year, 224 SL courses were offered and 2,981 students were enrolled in an SL course!

Due to faculty and student interest in experiential learning opportunities, the Service Learning Initiative took major steps to meet this need by creating its first full-time position. Noelle Kingsbauer assumed the role of Service Learning Coordinator for SLI in July 2024 after initially starting to work part-time for the initiative in August 2023. As more and more courses are recognized as service learning courses, the office’s responsibilities have expanded to create a full-time position. Joining Kingsbauer this summer is a new social media intern, Diego Rivera Ponce.

“After moving from Pennsylvania to Arkansas, I was eager to start somewhere that would allow me to leverage my passions and experiences,” says Kingsbauer. “The Service Learning Initiative allows me to be creative in writing articles, managing the website, and planning events, while also allowing me to use my bureaucratic skills in data entry, organizing, and working with diverse people from different groups. I’m so glad to be here!” Kingsbauer also recently joined 2020-2021 Outstanding Contributions to Service Learning Teaching Award recipient Professor Laura Gray in representing the University of Arkansas at the Gulf South Summit in April 2024.

The Service-Learning Coordinator works closely with the Service-Learning Director to ensure the initiative runs smoothly for all faculty, students, and community partners involved in the experiential learning programs. Lisa Bowers, associate professor in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program, was named Service-Learning Director in July 2023. “I couldn’t be more excited to have Noelle as a full-time member of our Service-Learning team,” says Bowers. “Noelle supports our students, faculty, and community partners in many ways, and I look forward to continuing to grow the number of students and faculty involved in service-learning.”

Among the many responsibilities of the service-learning coordinator is conducting background and drug checks for students taking courses that work with at-risk populations. The success of this role has led to a new pilot program in which the service-learning coordinator also helps select faculty members schedule students’ shifts at their community partner sites. Bowers says, “By designing the service-learning coordinator position to facilitate communication and scheduling between students and their community partners, we hope to reduce the additional email and coordination that faculty members sometimes struggle with.” She adds, “Noelle is uniquely suited to provide this additional support to students and faculty.”

This fall, the Service Learning Initiative expanded to include two new funding opportunities for all faculty, whether they have been teaching SL courses for years or are new to the SL community. With the goal of increasing the number of new SL courses established, the Faculty Course Design Grant is open for applications until October 1, 2024.

To provide faculty with the materials they need for their SL courses, requests for funding for supplies or equipment under $500 can be submitted at any time with a streamlined approval process. Traditional SL grants for travel, publication costs, and materials and equipment over $500 are still available, with set submission deadlines for committee approval. The Service-Learning Coordinator works with these new funding capabilities by collecting the requests and supporting documents and presenting them to the Service-Learning Director and, if appropriate, the Service-Learning Committee. For more information about these expanded funding opportunities, visit the Service Learning Initiative website.