Office of Community-Based Learning

What is Community-Based Learning (CBL)?

Community-Based Learning is when students perform service-learning projects or conduct community-based research that not only benefits local needs but is designed collaboratively between community-based organizations and campus faculty and students.

Projects emanate from community needs and community knowledge. However, coursework such as readings, lectures, and discussions help frame and inform students' understandings of the root causes of such community needs. Thus, action in communities leads to reflection, but class work guides reflection, leading to analysis and strategies for change.

Intellectual and practical engagement leads back to critically informed conversations with community partners. As students and faculty share analyses and strategies with community organizations, the production of knowledge and action becomes a democratically constructed set of understanding the world as it is, envisioning a world that could be, and designing the strategies and actions that might bring such a world into fruition. CBL at its best provides teaching, learning and partnerships inspired by the possibility of social justice.

What is a Community-Based Learning Course?

A CBL Course is a regular classroom course with additional hours creating and implementing projects or conducting research in partnership with a local community organization. At Stonehill, we have several CBL courses for students to choose from, spanning many different academic departments and disciplines.

We also have Learning Community CBL Courses, where students take prerequisite courses and then exercise academic skills in a new course that helps them understand the material in an action-based setting. The learning projects are designed by faculty in collaboration with community to enhance the social impact of the work.

Related News

February 26 | Stonehill Receives National Recognition for Community Service
For the fourth straight year, Stonehill College has been named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

November 10 | Stonehill Featured in Report by National Survey of Student Engagement
The 2009 report from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), "Assessment for Improvement: Tracking Student Engagement Over Time" lists Stonehill as one of many colleges and universities across the country dedicated to providing students with enhanced academic opportunities.

October 22 | Making a Difference
Many members of the Stonehill community are among the millions of Americans who will be participating in "Make A Difference Day" this Saturday. Corey Dolgon, the director of the Office of Community-Based Learning gives three examples of how Stonehill makes a difference everyday in our community.