Service Learning: Building a Culture of Service

Hello, and thank you for joining us once more. Over the past two weeks, consultants Drs. Tina Butler and Jennifer Eames have helped us explore how service learning can connect to your program's mission, and how programs can turn broad values such as service, empathy, and giving back into clear expectations and measurable goals.

But there's a difference between requiring service and creating a culture of service. How do you make giving back something your students, faculty, and staff genuinely embrace?

I'm handing you back to Drs. Butler and Eames. And this week, they've brought puppies….

Start by Setting the Example

If you want your students to value service, start with the people teaching them. Faculty and staff can model what service looks like.

Talk about the organizations you support and the work you're doing in your own community. Share those experiences with students. When you're hiring faculty, consider whether candidates demonstrate the values your program hopes to cultivate. Communicate those values before students ever enroll.

If service is central to your program, say so during recruitment. Look at applicants' previous service experiences. Let prospective students know that giving back isn't simply an activity they'll occasionally be asked to complete; it's part of the culture they're considering joining.

That helps you attract students who already see value in service and establishes expectations from the beginning.

Make Room for Service

PA education is demanding. If we tell students service matters but leave them to squeeze it into whatever scraps of time remain after everything else we've asked them to do, we're sending two different messages.

Sometimes building a culture means deliberately making room for it. Our students have delivered Meals on Wheels since our very first cohort. Every Monday, they participate in an adopted route, and we carve out an hour from the lecture schedule so they can do it.

Let Students Take Ownership

Faculty don't have to organize everything. In fact, one of the best ways to build a lasting culture is to give students some responsibility for carrying it forward.

We've created a class officer position devoted to service learning. That student helps organize activities and encourages classmates to get involved. Your program may find another model that works better. The important thing is to give students opportunities not just to participate in service, but to help lead it.

And don't assume service has to remain within the walls of the program. Invite families. Involve alumni. Build relationships with community organizations. Look for opportunities where faculty, staff, students, and the people important to them can participate together.

The more people who take ownership of that culture, the less likely it is to depend on one enthusiastic faculty member keeping everything alive.

Yes, There Are Puppies

We promised you puppies. Our program also works with Canine Companions, raising puppies that will eventually become service dogs. The puppies arrive at about eight weeks old and remain with our “puppy team” until they're approximately 15 to 18 months old. Then they move on to professional training.

As you might imagine, they're popular members of the program. Sometimes there's an educational benefit nobody thought to include in the curriculum. A difficult exam day feels a little different when there's a puppy available for a snuggle.

Of course, eventually you have to say goodbye. Watching a dog you've helped raise leave for the next stage of training can be emotional. But there's also something wonderful about knowing the puppy your students watched grow will eventually make an enormous difference in someone else's life. That's service, too.

And that's an important point: service doesn't always have to look like work. Be creative. Look for opportunities your students will genuinely enjoy while they're contributing to something worthwhile.

Build Relationships That Last

Service learning can also offer benefits that aren't immediately obvious.

PA programs everywhere are navigating a competitive clinical placement environment. Community relationships matter. When your program consistently shows up not because you're asking for something, but because you're contributing, people get to know your students, your faculty, and your commitment to the community. Those relationships can grow naturally over time.

That doesn't mean service should ever become transactional. You don't volunteer because you're hoping someone will give you a clinical placement in return. But authentic community engagement allows people to see that your program intends to be part of the community for the long haul. Sometimes strong relationships lead to opportunities nobody anticipated when the relationship began.

More Than a Requirement

Ultimately, a culture of service isn't created by putting a required number of hours in a handbook.

It's created by what you model, what you make time for. It’s created when students begin taking ownership of the work themselves, and when each new cohort enters a program where service is already part of the way things are done. That's how a requirement becomes a tradition.

Perhaps that's another answer to the question we asked at the beginning of this series: How do you grow good humans? Give them opportunities to serve other people. Show them that the people teaching them believe it's important, too. Then give them room to discover what service means for themselves.

Next time…

Thanks again to Drs. Butler and Eames!

In the next blog, they're taking us much farther from home. We'll look at international service learning: how to choose responsible partnerships, prepare students, plan for safety, manage the logistics, and make sure your program arrives ready to learn as well as serve. We’ll see you then.