Empowering students to become lifelong leaders
If you are a community partner looking for USC Upstate students to either volunteer or a service-learning class to assist you with an identified community need, please use our Request for Volunteers form.
At USC Upstate we seek to provide transformative experiences, and to advance social and economic mobility throughout the region as we empower students to become lifelong leaders. The Office of Service Learning and Community Engagement (AKA Engage Upstate) seeks to contribute to these efforts through supporting students, faculty, and staff in their involvement with our community – with primary focus on curricular activities and faculty development.
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We define service learning as teaching and learning that blends guided service with credit-bearing courses, meets a need in the community, defined by a community partner, is founded on disciplinary content, and incorporates deep reflection. By collaboratively addressing identified community needs with a community partner, the service experience enhances student learning by providing an opportunity to observe, test and apply discipline-based theories, concepts and skills. The academic context enriches the service experience by raising questions about real world issues and by providing a forum to reflect upon them. Further, service-learning is a mechanism to achieve a broader appreciation of a discipline, to sharpen problem solving skills and to develop an enhanced sense of civic responsibility (Faculty Senate, 02/20/2015)
Recognizing different needs for different classes, we offer three distinct course designations: Community Engagement gets students into the community as participants, but without serving a specific need (minimum 4 hours expected), Service Engagement guides students in entry-level service activities (minimum 4 hours expected), and Service Learning enables students to apply discipline specific skills to community challenges (minimum 15 hours expected). In general, “engagement” courses tend to be more introductory while the deeper investment in “learning” tends to happen in higher level courses.
For more information about Service Learning at USC Upstate, please email ServiceLearning@uscupstate.edu.
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USC Upstate has adopted Carnegie Foundation’s definition of community engagement:
Community engagement describes collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity. The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching, and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good. Carnegie Foundation, 2025
Engage Upstate
Together, Service Learning and Community at USC Upstate seek to enrich the lives of our students, faculty, staff and community.
The Office of Service Learning and Community Engagement was established in 2015 as a forum that cultivates strong reciprocal relationships between USC Upstate faculty, students and community organizations. For community partners, Engage Upstate recruits and prepares students to participate in meaningful service-oriented activities. For students, we provide information about service-learning courses and support the Office of Student Leadership and Service in offering opportunities to engage the community through service-based organizations such as IMPACT and Alternative Breaks. For instructors, we support individualized and programmatic connections with viable community partners for service-learning course placements and offer learning opportunities in course development and implementation.
Additional Resources
- USC Upstate Collaboratory: A searchable list of Community Engagement and Public Service Activities.
- Engage Upstate Blog: A blog about all things Service Learning & Community Engagement on campus.