Through curricular and co-curricular engagement, community-based learning (CBL) connects academics with direct community experience using the mutually beneficial, mutually empowering framework of experiential learning.

CBL allows students to:

• Learn about the workings of community
• Reflect on their position in the world
• Strengthen their commitments to social justice
• Develop interpersonal and professional skills

Utilizing reciprocal and sustained partnerships that simultaneously meet community needs, CBL offers preparation for citizenship, work, and leading a meaningful life with strong civic and social values. We foster awareness and knowledge to engage cross-culturally and encourage collaborative inquiry into issues of local and global significance.

 

Core Principals of Community-Based Learning

For students and faculty:

• Understand the ethical boundaries of one’s expertise and positionality.
• Create space for critical reflection.
• Engage in challenging conversations around race, power, and perspective.
• Center the experiences to be asset-based and driven by identified needs from the community.
• Ensure that the partnership is mutually beneficial and mutually empowering.
• Align course goals and learning outcomes with the community-based experience to ensure high-quality student learning.

 

 

Committed to enhancing Goucher’s academic mission, CBL provides Goucher students with access to volunteer opportunities, student leadership programs, work study opportunities, courses, and more.

Goucher College's Community-Based Learning Program offers opportunities in these areas.

• Animal Welfare
• Empowering Ability
• Environmental Sustainability
• Food & Housing Security
• K-12 Education & Youth Development
• Immigrant & Refugee Programs
• Health and Wellness

There are many ways to get involved with CBL:

• Become a part of one of Goucher's weekly signature programs, including a unique off-campus Federal Work Study job
• Volunteer with a local organization and learn more about one-time and periodic service events with one of our many community partners
• Get involved with a social justice student club, or volunteer through Athletics or Spiritual and Religious Life
• Take a Community-Based Learning course;
• Participate in a community-based internship
• Apply to be a Community- Based Learning Student Director (CBLSD), a student director for one of our weekly signature programs

Our programs support organizations throughout Baltimore City and Baltimore County. These opportunities range from weekly and ongoing volunteer programs to credit-bearing Community-Based Learning courses, and also include the community-based programs lead by members of student clubs, athletic teams, and other campus groups. Goucher offers weekly volunteer programs that span from tutoring in Baltimore area schools to organic gardening on local farms.

Please contact community@idnscenter.net if you have any questions about community-based opportunities or would like to know more about a federal work study position within the Community-Based Learning Program. Current open positions are listed on handshake—Goucher College Community-Based Learning.