Average Service Hours Performed By High School Students During an Academic School Year

Our service-learning efforts are strategically aimed at putting our program's high school students in proactive positions that require the use of intellect, leadership, community activism, and good citizenship.

In EAOPs service-learning projects, UC Bound and CBOP students are provided with an opportunity to assume the roles of mentors, peer advisors, and tutors at middle schools and elementary schools.  In essence, the high school students promote their own development while promoting the development of younger students.  The high school students contribute to our work in two ways.  First, they strengthen the EAOP K-12 educational pipeline.  Second, they share program services with future generations of program participants.

As commonly understood by service-learning researchers and practitioners, service-learning contributes to the development of students in the affective and cognitive domains.  In the affective dimension, service-learning promotes a student's self-esteem, social responsibility, personal growth, career awareness, civic-mindedness, cultural sensitivity, and personal efficacy.  Cognitive development is associated with a student's course comprehensions and mastery, writing and reflection abilities, deeper understanding of issues, ability to apply knowledge, and critical thinking skills.

Because of its diverse and amorphous orientation, service-learning has been defined in several ways.  Service-learning is often categorized as "community service", "volunteerism", "extracurricular", and "experiential education".  It is included in the company of activities that are "out-of-class", closely linked to the "real-world", and "hands-on", in nature.  Indeed, service-learning can be all of this.  It can have elements from one, two, or even from all of these respective areas.  In its own right, though, service-learning can differentiate itself.  If the effort in question is not service oriented, and if learning is not promoted in the "affective" or "cognitive" domains, then the effort falls outside the realm of service-learning.  In service-learning, the service performed is characterized by helping others, assisting someone, or advancing the interest of an individual, organization, and community.