Interest in community-based learning courses, classes that incorporate community service as part of the curriculum, has increased at Georgetown in recent years. Professors from a wide range of departments have begun to offer an extra academic credit to students interested in applying issues learned in the classroom to service projects in the city. This expansion of education into more practical learning is a positive shift toward a teaching system that not only focuses on book learning steeped in abstract theory, but also on incorporating concrete experience into the syllabus in order to enhance student learning.
This semester, a sociology course titled “Law and Society” paired up undergraduate students and Law students with law firms in D.C. that are doing pro-bono work in community-based organizations. In addition, two Spanish courses are waiting for approval for CBL credits by engaging students with the Spanish-speaking communities in D.C. These communities are mainly comprised of immigrants who bear the brunt of issues like school closures. Other ways for students to gain CBL credits include tutoring, working with other marginalized communities in the District, and getting involved in public health issues.
Georgetown’s array of extracurricular service opportunities such as Community Service Day, D.C. Reads, D.C. Schools, and Prison Outreach are proof of our community’s commitment to social justice. However, in the past, opportunities to use service as a hands-on teaching tool in the classroom were rare. Even today, classes such as International Relations and Economics still distance themselves from people’s day-to-day lives and focus on theories that might or might not apply to helping students understand the struggles of marginalized communities.
While it is essential for students to learn academic theories outlined in textbooks and lectures, going out to the city and working one-on-one with marginalized communities enriches classroom learning by exposing students to the complexity of the real world that cannot be taught in a classroom. CBL courses are but one way to bring students down from this ivory tower, and allow them to interact with people who experience the impact of the policies and issues they learn about in class.
At a university where commitment to service forms the backbone of community life, it is crucial that Georgetown forms well-rounded students who have both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. CBL courses play an important role in this, and students should continue to promote them as part of the Georgetown academic experience.
