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This study considered the impact of the SERVE Program upon participating college students' belief in the American Dream. The SERVE Program is a community service learning program sponsored by the philosophy and theology departments at Ignatius University. Using a mixed methods approach, the authors found that participating students demonstrated significant declines in their belief in the American Dream in comparison to a randomly assigned control group. Qualitative interviews revealed that the program exerted this influence, in part, by providing participants with diverse opportunities to think critically about the availability of opportunity in the United States. (Contains 2 notes, 1 footnote, and 5 tables.)

Over the past decade, many student affairs professionals have turned their attention to non-cognitive factors that can play a role in supporting students from underrepresented groups in making it to and through college. The work in this area that has gotten the most attention in recent years has focused on students' sense of belonging and efficacy. In this article, the authors begin by acknowledging the numerous strengths of belonging-centered and efficacy-centered approaches to fostering college student success but also argue that these approaches are incomplete. They posit that a more critically conscious approach to fostering college-going success can deepen participating college students' sense of purpose and, in so doing, increase their likelihood of successful college completion.

In this article, the authors describe the experiences of five cadets and college students serving as camp leaders for the United States Air Force Academy's (USAFA) Leaders of Character Camp (LoCC). Additionally, they describe the work in which three other universities are engaged to adapt the LoCC model to their own university contexts. In so doing, the authors seek to offer insights into how such camp experiences foster college students' leadership and character and to highlight some of the efforts to expand the reach of such experiences across the nation.

Over the past several years, there has been a resurgence of interest in--and reconceptualizing of-- character education in primary and secondary schools across the United States. An important question, then, is how this new emphasis on character development at the K-12 level impacts the work of university faculty and student affairs professionals. Are graduates of these primary and secondary schools with an intensive character focus arriving at their respective universities with heightened levels of grit and social intelligence? Are such qualities facilitating their ability to thrive at the postsecondary level? Are university faculty and staff coordinating with their K-12 counterparts to support the continued development of these qualities in newly matriculated students? The authors pose these questions in interviews with four different university stakeholders who can speak to the effects at the university level of the new character education emphasis in many American primary and secondary schools.

A growing body of research has found community service learning to have a positive effect upon participating college students' civic development; however, far less scholarship has considered the impact of particular components of a community service learning program. This article presents two preliminary but promising strategies for enhancing the effects of community service learning programming upon participating college students: (a) identifying students' expectations at the outset of the service experience about what they expect to accomplish and (b) providing students' parents with opportunities to participate in their children's reflection about their service experiences.

Background/Context: Over the past two decades, more than 200 studies have been published on the effects of community service learning on university students. However, the majority of these studies have focused on the effects of such programming on White and affluent college students, and few have considered whether there are differential effects for participants depending on their racial and ethnic backgrounds. This study considered these differential effects in both the academic and experiential components of such programming. Participants: This study compared the experiences of 244 White students and 118 students of color participating in a community service learning program at Beacon University (a pseudonym) during the 2008-2009 academic year. Intervention: The Social Action Program is a community service learning program sponsored by Beacon University's philosophy department that seeks to educate participating students about social injustice. The academic component of the program is a year-long course that includes interdisciplinary readings from the humanities and social sciences as well as weekly lectures and a discussion section. Participating students also spend 10 hours each week for the entire academic year at one of approximately 50 different service placements focused on antipoverty efforts. Research Design: Mixed-methods research design involving quantitative analyses (analysis of covariance) of pre-post surveys and qualitative analyses of hour-long semistructured interviews. Results: Students of color participating in the community service learning program characterized the academic component of the program as offering a weaker sense of community than did their White classmates, and many expressed a reluctance to engage in race discussions with their classmates or to respond to perspectives they perceived as naive, inaccurate, or offensive. Conclusions: Even university courses and programming explicitly designed to disrupt White privilege can inadvertently be normed to serve the interests, experiences, and learning goals of White students. Such reification of White privilege comes with a significant cost; the learning of all students is diminished when diverse perspectives are not fully represented or heard.

This mixed methods study considered the relationship between the civic development of college students participating in the Serve Program at Ignatius University and the influence of these students' parents. The Serve Program is a community service learning program that combines coursework in philosophy and theology with a year-long service project. Analyses of pre-post survey data revealed that students whose parents were highly supportive of their participation in the program demonstrated the greatest increases in public service motivation and expected political participation. Qualitative interviews with Serve participants revealed that highly supportive parents provided students with additional opportunities for reflection upon the readings, lectures and service projects they were encountering through the Serve Program. (Contains 3 tables and 2 notes.)

From 1983-2011, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter (HSHS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the only student-run homeless shelter in the United States. However, college students at Villanova, Temple, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, and Swarthmore drew upon the HSHS model to open their own student-run homeless shelter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in January 2012. This article describes the process by which the Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia opened its doors, as well as the successes and challenges encountered in its first year of operation. The feasibility of this student-run model expanding to other American cities is also considered.

The Serve Program at Ignatius University is a community service-learning program that combines academic study of philosophy with a yearlong field-based project at one of approximately 50 different sites. Half of these projects entail working with youth, while the other half entail working with adults. This mixed methods analysis found that college students engaged in adult-oriented service demonstrated larger shifts in public service motivation and belief in a just world than their peers engaged in youth-oriented service. Qualitative interviews with participating students suggest that these differences may be due to the disparate expectations of participants who entered into their respective service experiences. (Contains 4 tables.)

This study considered the impact of the SERVE Program at Ignatius University upon participating students' expected political involvement. The SERVE Program is a community service learning program sponsored jointly by Ignatius University's philosophy and theology departments. Through a mixed methods research design, the authors found that Ignatius University students participating in the SERVE Program demonstrated statistically significant increases in their expected political voice in comparison with peers in a control group. Qualitative interviews with SERVE participants revealed that the program increased students' awareness of political and social issues; heightened their commitment to philanthropy; fostered their interest in pursuing socially responsible work; and strengthened their commitment to working for social change. (Contains 3 notes and 5 tables.)

In a previous article for the "Engagement on Campus" column in the "Journal of College and Character", the authors described the weaker sense of community experienced by students of color and students from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds in a university-based community service learning program, as well as how students from these identity groups described and understood their experiences within the program (Novick, Seider, & Huguley, 2011). In this article, the authors turn to qualitative interviews with participating students from this same community service learning program who identified as White and/or affluent. The descriptions by these students of conversations within the program about race and class offer further insight into the dynamics that contribute to a discrepant sense of community in courses or programs involving community service learning.

The Serve Program at Ignatius University combines academic study of theology with a year-long community service project focused on combating poverty. An analysis of the Serve Program during the 2008-09 academic year revealed that participating students demonstrated a significant increase in their interest in theology; a greater desire to enroll in theology coursework; and a deeper interest in theology than classmates not participating in the service-learning program. Interviews with Serve participants revealed that their exposure to poverty and inequality through their service placements led them to read the program's assigned theological texts with a particular focus on the authors' messages about individual and social responsibility for struggling fellow citizens.

Americans' beliefs about the causes of poverty and inequality have a direct impact on public support for economic and social policies designed to reduce poverty. This study considered the impact of the Pulse Program at Boston College on participating students' beliefs about the causes of poverty. The Pulse Program is a community service learning program sponsored jointly by Boston College's philosophy and theology departments. Through a mixed-methods research design involving random assignment to a treatment or a control group, the authors found that Boston College students participating in the Pulse Program demonstrated statistically significant shifts toward an understanding of poverty that emphasized structural causes over individual causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pulse Program at Boston College is a community service learning program that combines academic study of philosophy and theology with a year-long community service project. An analysis of the Pulse Program during the 2008-09 academic year revealed that participating students demonstrated a significant increase in their interest in philosophy; a greater likelihood of enrolling in additional philosophy coursework; and a deeper interest in philosophy than classmates not participating in service-learning. Interviews with participating students revealed that the Pulse Program highlighted philosophy's relevance to the "real world" as well as the useful role that philosophy can play in reflecting upon the social issues raised by students' community service experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]