The College of Education believes in the value of applying what you learn in the classroom to real life situations. One way this belief is put into practice is through service learning.

In 1999, the Auburn University Education and Health Professions Partnership (EHPP) initiated a program called Partners In Community Service (PICS). PICS focuses on incorporating service learning into the curriculum as well as offering opportunities for the students to become involved with community service.

The College of Education began combining service learning in to its curriculum because of some of its faculty members' involvement with PICS, said Dr. Holly Stadler, director of PICS and department head of Counseling & Counseling Psychology.

"It's since grown to include the core courses, other undergraduate courses and courses in the graduate curriculum," Stadler said.

Stadler said PICS gives out instructional development grants and many College of Education faculty have been successful in securing those grants. The College has also received funding from the national organization American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education: National Service-Learning in Teacher Education Partnership (AACTE) to help establish service learning in its curriculum.

There are more than 35 human service agencies that are part of this collaborative effort as well as many of the local schools such as Dean Road Elementary and Loachapoka Elementary School.

Some of the community agencies that are partners with the College of Education include many United Way agencies such as the Easter-Seals Achievement Center, Boy Scouts, Auburn Day Care Centers, Inc., Crisis Center of East Alabama and East Alabama AIDS Outreach.

"This year in EDUC 3000, a core course titled 'Diversity of Learners and Settings in Education,' there were more than 6,000 hours of community service provided," Stadler said. "In the undergraduate course 'Counseling and Human Services' there were more than 3,000 hours of service provided."

The College of Education also sent groups of faculty members to Clemson University in South Carolina for a training workshop on service learning in education as well as having one department head attend an AACTE service learning workshop.

Stadler said one of the most positive aspects of service learning is the fact that it meets real needs within the community while also meeting the educational needs of the University.

It is also clear through the data collected by the evaluations conducted by PICS that service learning brings the curriculum to life in ways that can be duplicated by no other process.

"We see that it is helping the students understand the course content more fully, and for some it is introducing them to the challenges they will meet in their future professions. For others, it opens their eyes to lives and conditions they've never been exposed to before," Stadler said.