Connecting Regis with the Community
The Center for Service Learning works with faculty and students to connect the academic objectives of particular courses to specific needs out in our community. At Regis University service learning takes four basic forms:
- Direct service
- Advocacy
- Community based learning and research
- Consciousness-raising in the community
Standing within the Catholic and Jesuit traditions, service learning at Regis is specific in terms of its intended outcomes and its principle focus. Through these traditions, we are called to promote justice and to discern the influence of our actions from the perspective of the poor and marginalized in society. As we work alongside marginated people, we develop our capacity to listen and to learn from people who are not often heard or valued in our culture.
Over time, we can grow in solidarity with them and begin to see society as an integrated whole. As members and sustaining links of this whole, we are not able to easily forget, dismiss, or distance ourselves from the people or their experiences on the margins of society. We glimpse the relational nature of justice, and are hopefully transformed to rise to meet the challenge of becoming positive change agents for a more just society.
Our goal, therefore, is not simply to experience and gain a deeper understanding of the voices of the marginalized in our society, but rather, to learn about and gain the tools through which the inequitable systems and structures of society can be challenged and changed.
Learn more about our current local initiatives by visiting the Center for Service Learning webpage.