We engage students in UGA’s public service mission as a fundamental part of their academic experience at UGA.
Service-learning enhances student learning through the application of academic skills and knowledge to address a community-identified need, issue, or problem. Service-learning is a core part of UGA’s experiential learning requirement.
Service-learning differs from community service, internships, or field study experiences because the service activity is connected to the course learning goals through reflection and critical analysis, and seeks to balance the benefits to the student with benefits to the community partners and the public good.
The Office of Service-Learning is jointly supported by UGA’s Office of Instruction and Public Service & Outreach.
We Build Faculty Capacity
The OSL encourages community-engaged teaching and research through expanded faculty development. We offer workshops, consultations and grants, organize the annual service-learning fellows program, and present awards to faculty for their work in service-learning instruction and research.
We Support Community Partners
The OSL develops community-university partnerships for service-learning projects and placements. Some of our partnerships include Experience UGA, Campus Kitchen, Coaching4Success and Engage GA.
We Enhance Student Learning
The OSL supports student programs and opportunities for service-learning and experiential learning. These opportunities include becoming an Experience UGA Ambassador, becoming an academic coach with Coaching4Success, joining Campus Kitchen, and applying to be a PSO Student Scholar.
We Make a Positive Impact
The OSL measures the impact of service-learning through scholarship, assessment and institutional tracking. This includes our service-learning course surveys and publishing the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement (JHEOE).
News
- Promoting Health and Play at UGA
From washing hands regularly to avoiding sugary drinks, it’s never too early to begin thinking about personal health. Experience UGA, a program coordinated by the University of Georgia’s Office of Service-Learning, designs its second-grade…
Read more - Celebrating the 2026 Service-Learning Excellence Awards
Four University of Georgia faculty members have been recognized by the Office of Service-Learning with 2026’s Service-Learning Excellence Awards. These awards recognize faculty for outstanding service-learning instruction and advancing service-learning scholarship. Since 2011, more…
Read more - Fall 2025 – Service-Learning by the Numbers
Fall 2025 marked an important milestone in the development of service-learning at UGA as the Office of Service-Learning celebrated its 20th anniversary! Visit the report below to scroll through the Fall 2025 highlights in…
Read more - Josh Podvin forges lasting connections between UGA and the community
For Josh Podvin, connection starts with listening and grows through trust, persistence, and presence. As assistant director for community partnerships in the University of Georgia’s Office of Service-Learning, Podvin helps bridge the campus and…
Read more - Presenting Possibilities on Stage
When Chase Street Elementary School third grader Maya Shrivastav attended a presentation and play in 2015 at the University of Georgia, she never dreamed that in 10 years she would be on stage as…
Read more - Thirteen Years of Turkeys, Teamwork and Togetherness
Thanks to the helping hands of hundreds of volunteers from the University of Georgia and surrounding community, more than 1,400 Athens-Clarke County neighbors will not face hunger this Thanksgiving holiday.