The American Councils Service Learning Initiative

The American Councils Service Learning Initiative (ACSLI) is designed to help JFDP Alumni in Southeast Europe integrate service learning methodologies into their classroom and, at the same time, offer valuable assistance to the communities in which our alumni live and work.

Service learning is an international academic movement that seeks to integrate service projects into traditional classroom instruction (go here for details about the methodology). The American Councils Service Learning Initiative seeks to create connections bewteen our JFDP Alumni and community groups in need of technical assistancethat can be provided by university students.

By enocuraging alumni and their students to become active in their communities, The American Councils Service Learning Initiative seeks to:

  • increase the quality of students education by providing them with "real world" experiences to complement their classroom instruction
  • develop links between institutions of higher education and society at large
  • encourage an ethic of volunteerism in university students
  • offer needed technical assistance to community groups or organizations
  • contribute to the development of responsible citizenship
  • involve youth in the betterment of humanity

The initiative was launched in April 2006, and already there have been numerous successes. In June of 2006, JFDP Alumni attended a Summer Workshop on Service Learning, the goal of which was to develop a comprehensive plan of how to develop and implement service learning in Southeast Europe.

If you are a community group or organization, and would like to learn more about how the initiative might be able to help, please contact us.

ACSLI Projects to Date