Each semester, undergraduate students in the UCF Women’s and Gender Studies Program turn knowledge into action by completing Service Learning projects with community partners. In the classroom, students learn theories and methods of analyzing women’s roles in history and contemporary society and the importance of service and community engagement of women. With service learning, students take that knowledge into the community and learn, with the help of community organizations, how to facilitate civic engagement. Students complete fifteen hours of community service and deliver a final project based on that partnership; in class, they present to their peers how their community engagement and service links with their classroom knowledge of women’s and gender issues.
Benefits of Service Learning
- Students apply their classroom knowledge in non-academic situations.
- Students interact with real-world audiences, and agency liaisons and community members provide feedback on their work.
- Students gain experience outside of the classroom and learn valuable time- and resource- management skills.
- Students face live dilemmas, both ethical and everyday, and similar to those they would confront in their chosen careers.
- Students make valuable connections with community leaders and community organizations.
Women’s Studies Courses with Service Learning Components
- WST3015: Introduction to Women’s Studies
- WST3561: Third Wave Feminism
More Information
Learn more about service learning on the Experiential Learning website.
Service Learning
UCF Organizations
- iSTEM UCF
- LGBTQ+ Services
- NOW at UCF
- Planned Parenthood Generation Action at UCF
- Science Leadership and Mentoring (SLAM)
- UCF Library: Judith Kaplan Special Collections
- UCF Victim Services
- Women @ UCF (History Department UCF)
Community Organizations
- American Association of University Women
- Animal Safehouse Rescue
- Days for Girls
- Farmworkers Association of Florida
- Generation W
- Girls Scouts of Critus County
- Harbor House Orlando
- IWC: HIV Shelter for Homeless Women in Chile
- Library of Congress
- March of Dimes Central Florida
- National Farm Worker Ministry – Orlando
- National Organization for Women
- Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders
- Safehouse of Seminole County Domestic Violence Shelter
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida
- Sewell House in Capital Hill
- The Women’s Center