It is important to remember that a key to the success of your service learning courses
is the effort put in by the faculty member between semesters and between academic
years. The relationships that you build with your community partners and the work
that you put into building service learning networks that will enable your students to
have leadership development opportunities often occur at times when the class is not
in session. Finding appropriate community partners and projects and investing in these
human relationships are critical if you are to be effective (Garcia, 2013; Hoyt, 2010).
The investment you make in your service learning course design will not only help the
students individually but will also help your university as a whole. Previous research
has shown that there is a significant positive relationship between high-quality service
learning courses and the retention of first-year college students to the second year
(Bringle, Hatcher, & Muthiah, 2010).