Why Service-Learning?

IPSL international service-learning programs integrate academic study with substantive volunteer service, creating a powerful dynamic between direct cultural exposure and academic learning. Interaction with the community teaches you how the culture functions. Time in the classroom teaches you why it functions as it does. By testing theory with practice, IPSL students find their learning takes on greater depth and meaning.

Through your studies at a local university, volunteer service in the community, and living in a homestay or on campus, you are fully immersed in several levels of the culture simultaneously. Guided field trips, reflection, and other support services also help you to understand the culture and your experience of it.

IPSL students are adventuresome, idealistic, thoughtful, generous, curious, enthusiastic, and open-minded. Since 1982, they have been making a difference in local communities around the world, putting their education and skills to good use, and giving meaning to their education.

Benefits of IPSL Programs

Integrated study abroad experience
Your whole program—studies, service, living, and excursions—is designed to give you a complex and varied experience of the culture while making your learning immediate and relevant, and therefore more meaningful.

Making a difference to people in need
Whether your service helps improve health or education, assists in community development, or alleviates suffering, your service addresses human needs which would otherwise go unmet, and is valued by the community.

Full cultural immersion
As an IPSL student, you are not just an academic tourist. You are immersed in several levels of the society, and contribute to the host culture through your service. For example, you might attend an elite university; live with a middle-class family; and work with destitute street children.

Real cultural understanding
Through the combination of classroom theory and practical experience serving in a social agency, IPSL students develop a broad knowledge of the forces that shape the culture; an intimate understanding of its peoples, customs, and traditions; and deep insight into the complex social issues and realities of the society.

Meaningful growth and personal insight
You will develop skills, discover talents, and gain meaningful personal insight about who you are, what you are capable of, and who you want to become. IPSL students often say their program experience stays with them for many years, helping to shape their values, aspirations, and career paths. See Student Profiles for their stories.