Program characteristics

Service-learning (SL) is a structured pedagogy which engages students in community work and enhances students’ professional skills by allowing them to practice these skills in a real-life setting while also emphasizing the importance of service and civic responsibility.  All students at the University of Minnesota have the opportunity to enroll in these courses within their different colleges. Dosage and activities of community engagement differ between courses. 

Audience served

College students, especially underrepresented students who are students of color, first-generation, and/or low-income. These University of Minnesota service learning courses are available to all University of Minnesota students.

Primary program components

University of Minnesota operate course-based service-learning courses in which college students conduct community engagement through an organized credit-bearing experience. To assess the effect of service learning, it is essential to compare students who experience service-learning in core courses to students who never experience core courses with a service learning component.

Challenges addressed

The analyses explored outcomes in the areas of cumulative GPAs, credits earned, enrollment by the end of each academic year, and four-year graduation. PSM was used to create matched treatment and comparison groups, with the first treatment group consisting of students who participated in a service-learning course before the end of their first year (2012 fall to 2013 summer), compared with non-service-learning students, We established comparable treatment and comparison group through propensity score matching.

Key findings 

• There is a positive relationship between students’ participation in course-based service-learning and their continued engagement and re-enrollment in college.
• For the 2011 entering cohort, participation in service-learning by end of the first year (n = 1,844) was associated with higher annual grade point averages, more credits earned by the third year, a higher likelihood to re-enroll each year, and a higher likelihood to graduate in four years. When separating out underrepresented students, first-year service-learning participation was associated with higher annual grade point averages, more credits earned by the end of the third year, a higher likelihood to re-enroll (by the second year), and a higher likelihood to graduate in four years.
• The findings for the overall 2012 freshman entering cohort differed some. Significant positive effects were found for the first-year service-learning participation group, but not for the second-year participation group. Students participation in service-learning by end of their first year (n = 1,814) had higher grade point averages, a higher likelihood of continuing to enroll (persistence, retention) each year, and a higher likelihood of graduating in four years. When separating out underrepresented students, first-year service-learning participation was associated with higher grade point averages by the end of the second year (but not in subsequent years), a higher likelihood to re-enroll (by the third year), and a higher likelihood to graduate in four years. No association was found between first-year service-learning participation and credits earned, for both the overall sample and underrepresented students.