- Academic Programs & Support
- Academic Enrichment
- Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning
- Service Learning for Students
Service Learning for Students
Expand your experience while making an impact on your community. The Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning can help you find a place to volunteer or do a course-based service learning project.
Check our full calendar of upcoming service projects or pursue your own independent service project by exploring the list of community agencies who we partner with.
Below you'll find a number of ways to get involved and get your hands dirty. Whether you want to jump in on one of our pre-organized days of service or discover a new city while serving that community with an Alternative Break Trip. We also coordinate the Lily Community Engagement Award which recognizes students who are involved in service learning.
Forms for students, Clubs, and Organizations
Lily Community Engagement Award
Giving back to our community is a rewarding experience and we want to recognize you for all your hard work and dedication. Learn more about how to have your efforts formally recognized. Discover the guidelines for earning the Lily Award and the Lily Award with Distinction.
Alternative Break Program
An Alternative Break trip gives you the chance to visit a new city or country while making an impact in a community. From Nashville to New York City, each week-long trip is service oriented so students volunteer their time with a wide variety of organizations, like Habitat for Humanity or the Ronald McDonald House.
Days of Service
Join the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning for one of our Days of Service. These are a great way to jump-start your service learning experience: all you have to do is pick a day, choose a service opportunity, and show up. Everything is taken care of for you. Explore our Days of Service and find an opportunity that calls to you.
Student Service Corps
Become a leader in service learning. Apply to join the Catamount Student Service Corps where you'll expand your impact in our community and grow your leadership skills by helping plan, organize and lead service learning projects. Students who are eligible for Federal Work-Study can apply for the program.
How To Join
The Ripple Effect
An experiential learning community, The Ripple Effect challenges students like you to find what you really love in the world and how to effect change that can make a lasting impact. Curricular Components will include two courses during the fall semester with a Community Engagement Project that will allow you and your classmates address a relevant issue by working together.
Student Democracy Coalition
As a part of the ongoing campaign to register, educate, and mobilize and voters in North Carolina, the Student Democracy Coalition supports student habits of being educated and informed, registered and active, and passionate and purposeful.
Local Food & Farm to School Education Project
Are you a School of Teaching and Learning or Nutrition/Dietetics student? Through the Growing Minds @ WCU project, you can learn how to teach children about local food and farms as well as how to grow and cook their own food. See how this project is changing the way children in Western North Carolina interact with farms, food, and nutrition.
Catamount Leaders Active With Service (CLAWS)
Through a firm foundation in the core principles of servant leadership, civic mindedness, and locally-specific curricula, the Catamount Leaders Active With Service (CLAWS) program will create and develop a culture of student civic engagement and leadership on campus.