… Preparing Today The Active Community Service Leaders Of Tomorrow
The Center for Public Service and Scholarship offers many ways for you to be a part of our community through service, fun, tutoring, building homes and sharing your talents. We can connect you with many agencies for service-learning opportunities. Shenandoah University students and athletic teams are working in our community to improve the lives of others.
Meet the Center for Public Service and Scholarship Director
Dr. Karen K. Schultz, Director
In July 2009, Karen Schultz, a recognized community leader in the Shenandoah Valley and a faculty member at Shenandoah University since 1981, was appointed Director of Shenandoah University’s Center for Public Service and Scholarship (CPSS) Schultz, Director and Professor, earned a bachelor’s degree from The College of William and Mary, an associate’s degree in respiratory care and a master’s in business administration from Shenandoah University, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. She received the university-wide exemplary teaching award in 2009, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Service Award in 2005 and has been honored twice as the pharmacy school’s teacher of the year. In the classroom, her ideas have won national recognition for innovations in teaching, and her service learning course has contributed just under 16,000 hours of student service in the region and achieved national attention.
Thinking about starting a service project? Once you have identified the site/project, we will work with the site to set up the project and the logistics.
Gregory Hall, room 157
1460 University Drive
Winchester, VA 22601
Mission
We model Shenandoah University’s commitment to prepare students to become active, informed citizens, keenly aware of the societal needs surrounding them. We promote engagement in community service, the scholarly understanding of the role of public service and civility in public life.
Goals
Engagement in Public Service: Serve as a central point for facilitating community-campus exchanges for community service and scholarship opportunities.
Leaders in Public Service/Future Citizen Leaders: Through establishing strategic partnerships on campus and in communities, provide students with opportunities to gain experience and a robust understanding of leadership, public services, advocacy and civic responsibility.
Scholarship through Public Service: Increase faculty, staff, and student participation in community engagement through scholarly projects with measurable outcomes in support of the University’s mission.
Shenandoah University Integrates Service Into The Educational Process
Various professors across the different disciplines here at SU have integrated Service-Learning into their coursework. Several have woven this initiative into the critical goals of the semester’s syllabus!
The annual Service-Learning Workshop teaches Shenandoah faculty and community members to infuse civic engagement in classrooms.
Service-Learning engages students in the educational process, using what they learn in the classroom to solve real-life problems. Students become contributing community members through the service they perform. They are encouraged to reflect on the experience by thinking, discussing, and writing about their service.
Download The Complete Faculty & Community Partner Service-Learning Tool Kit
By integrating both academic learning and community service, service learning courses differs in focus from both practicum/internship experiences and volunteer experiences. The teaching methods and learning activities in service learning courses are more student-directed than is typical in traditional lecture-based courses.
