Connecting the community with the classroom through service
The Center for Service Learning at Rockhurst University was formally established in 1994 to promote and organize community service projects and course-based service learning at Rockhurst. Since then, Service-Learning has been rebranded as Community-Engaged Learning; these efforts are now supported by the Director of Service & Action within the Mission and Ministry department.
The goal of Community-Engaged Learning is to draw Rockhurst University more deeply into reciprocal relationships with community partners, leading to collaborative exchange of knowledge and resources. Through this, partner agencies advance their respective missions, and Rockhurst University more authentically accepts the challenge uttered by Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ, one of the Salvadoran Jesuit Martyrs, in his seminal 1982 address at Santa Clara University: “a university is inescapably a social force: it must transform and enlighten the society in which it lives.
Service & Action provides a clearinghouse of community service opportunities for students, faculty, and staff through Engage RU, which tracks hours and can also produce a service resume.
What is community engagement?
Rockhurst University is guided by community engagement as envisioned by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: "The collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity."
What is community-engaged learning?
Community-Engaged Learning is a critical part of the Rockhurst University experience, a teaching methodology that extends learning from the classroom to the community through meaningful and reciprocal partnerships.
For more information, contact Bill Kriege, Director of Service & Action, via email (bill.kriege@rockhurst.edu) or phone (816-501-4855).
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Recognizing ongoing efforts to meaningfully partner with neighbors and serve beyond its campus walls, Rockhurst University earned the 2026 Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement from the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.