Learning through Service
The Center for Excellence in Learning through Service (CELTS) is the center focused on preparing students for a lifetime of civic engagement -- supporting opportunities throughout their college career and preparing them with skills for their post-graduate experience. Established in 2000 and continuing Berea’s long history of student leadership in service and outreach with our community, CELTS prepares students for various forms of community engagement including leadership in service and social justice advocacy. CELTS coordinates the campus’ student-led, community-service programs and supports service-learning in the academic curriculum. The work of CELTS supports Berea’s great commitments to promote the Christian ethic of service and to serve the Appalachian region and beyond.
Berea College students respond to community needs by serving in collaboration with community-based organizations through the Bonner Scholars Program and through CELTS-based service programs. Through their labor positions, students lead these service programs and coordinate activities including tutoring and mentoring children and teens, leading special programs for residents of long-term care facilities, helping to build houses for low-income families, bridging local English-speaking and Spanish-speaking populations, organizing the annual community-wide Hunger Hurts Food Drive and the Empty Bowls fundraiser for the Berea food bank, promoting student voter engagement, and taking on environmental and human rights issues.
CELTS also coordinates and supports service-learning in the academic curriculum. Service-learning is a pedagogy through which students achieve academic learning goals by collaborating with community-based organizations, as part of assigned coursework. Service-learning projects facilitate students in applying academic concepts in community settings, while critical reflection promotes learning by helping students to draw connections between the community-engaged work and the academic course content. These collaborations also further the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and resources between Berea College and the community. Service-learning courses are taught each term in a variety of departments at Berea College. Designated service-learning courses meet the Active Learning Experience (ALE) requirement in the General Education curriculum. (See Opportunities Common to Many Fields of Study for more information on Service-Learning Courses.)