Providing a strong community instruction program, like most worthwhile endeavors, is both inspiring and challenging. The inspiration comes from watching my students open their eyes and see, sometimes for the first time, how the ideas of the academy can actually impact the world. My students have stories to tell and connections to make that never cease to inspire me. Every semester is different, yet one pattern remains consistent. Students almost always start their service with high ideals, which soon are tested and frustrated by their own limitations and the realities of social service. However, if I’ve done my job well, students will end the semester with a tempered idealism that allows them to proceed with greater wisdom to the next step in their career path.

When Community Instruction really works, and students rise above simply logging their hours and completing their assignments, something truly special transpires. In many of the sites we serve, our students have a reputation so strong that each cohort enters a service arena that has become dependent on the energy, creativity and knowledge they bring each semester. It is my goal each term to place a larger percentage of committed students in such environments, and inspire them to contribute to a service-learning tradition that will grow and richly serve the students that follow.