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While I was working on databases and spreadsheets at the American Red Cross, for hours at a time, I would often think to myself, “what is service learning, and why do we have to do it?” Most of the time, I simply thought of it as forced volunteerism, with no real direction, or purpose. This is due to the fact that the reason that we were made to volunteer was not exactly revealed to us. So, I decided, for my paper, to make some discoveries about Service Learning. These discoveries would be made most likely by viewing other schools’ programs, which implement service learning. The facts that would be of most interest are, service learning itself, the definition of service learning, the benefits of service learning, and finally, how service learning should and needs to be implemented into the curriculum, most importantly, the pharmacy curriculum. I thought, before heading into my service learning experience at the Red Cross, that Duquesne’s pharmacy school would already have a grasp of the concept of service learning, how it should be implemented into the curriculum, and most importantly, how it benefits the students. Benefit to the students, has to be the most important aspect of the entire concept, because if there is no real benefit to the students, there is no good reason to waste valuable time on an education strategy known as service learning. The education strategy that is known as service learning is not a new strategy at all. The roots of service learning can be traced back to the 1930’s. It was during this time that a man by the name of John Dewey founded the concepts that would eventually lead to the formation of service learning. This was apparent in his assessment of education, in which, he theorized that effective learning required context through application and experience. Dewey called for an approach to teaching that was democratic, participatory, and interactive. His philosophy of education was the foundation for approaches such as service learning that extend students’ learning beyond the walls of the classroom. An important aspect of Dewey’s assessment of learning and education was that learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection. It is in the reflection stage, through discussion groups, journals, and papers, that Dewey believes, students really learn from their experiences and make connections to things relevant in society and also their future profession, which is pharmacy, in this case.
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