The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifies and researches the educational progress of post-secondary education. It now includes a voluntary classification that focuses on service to the larger community.
Efforts in these areas are conducted at all levels of education, and we include the Carnegie definitions below. We also include Barbara Jacoby's classic definition of service learning.
Community Engagement: Collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.
Curricular Engagement: Institutions where teaching, learning and scholarship
engage faculty, students, and community in mutually beneficial and respectful
collaboration. Their interactions address community-identified needs, deepen
students' civic and academic learning, enhance community well-being, and enrich
the scholarship of the institution.
Service-Learning*: A form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development. Reflection and reciprocity are key concepts of service-learning.
* Service-Learning definition cited from Jacoby, Service-Learning in Higher Education, 1996