SALT Project featured in guide of nation's top service-learning programs

Janel Shoun | 


Lipscomb’s SALT Project featured in guide of nation’s top service-learning programs

Lipscomb University’s new service-learning program, The SALT Project, has barely begun and already it’s adding some spice to Lipscomb’s academic record.

The annual Service Day is a popular tradition and serves as a model for SALT campus-wide service projects.
Annual missions trip opportunities will be one way to meet SALT service-learning requirements.
The engineering school annually takes engineering students to developing countries to construct needed projects like this bridge.
The Serving and Learning Together (SALT) Project, designed to teach students specific learning outcomes through service opportunities, will begin as a pilot program just this fall, but it has already been selected for a forthcoming publication of the nation’s top civic engagement programs: Beyond the Books’ A Guide to Service-Learning Colleges and Universities.

Compiled by Student Horizons, the Beyond the Books guide strives to highlight colleges “where the classroom meets the real world.” Programs are selected for the publication based on:

  • The quality of the service-learning;
  • The scale and scope of the initiative;
  • The amount of institutional support; and
  • The recognition students receive for participating.

To date, Lipscomb is one of only five schools in Tennessee, and one of almost 250 nationwide, to be profiled in this national guidebook. Student Horizons expects the book to include up to 400 colleges by the time it is published around the new year, said Julianne Salisbury, director of Beyond the Books, the umbrella organization for the guidebook.

“We are excited that Lipscomb’s SALT Project will be highlighted nationally,” said Christin Shatzer, SALT Project director. “The university has always worked hard to provide opportunities for students to engage in service experiences, and it is great to see many aspects of our latest, most in-depth effort recognized. Few schools in the nation have taken such a significant approach to integrating service-learning into the entire undergraduate experience. The SALT Project will truly bring our long-standing tradition of service to a new level.”

Student Horizons, Inc., was founded by concerned parents and admissions professionals to help students find colleges that complement their unique personalities and aspirations. Instead of looking for the richest or the most famous schools, Student Horizons searches for colleges that are the best places for various types of students to learn, grow and succeed.

Student Horizons first created the Colleges of Distinction Website and then in early 2007, published the Colleges of Distinction guidebook, profiling 200 schools across the nation. Now the organization is developing the Beyond the Books Website to bring college-bound students useful information in four specific areas: service-learning, study abroad, entrepreneurship programs and leadership programs.

Student Horizons plans to publish a hard-copy guide in each of these four areas, and Beyond the Books’ A Guide to Service-Learning will be the first, Salisbury said. The guide will be published by Latham Press and will be available on www.Amazon.com and other book vender sites and will be distributed to secondary schools, libraries and community-based organizations.

“All the schools in this book have a passion for service-learning,” said Salisbury. “The universities included have to show that their service is an integral part of the learning process, not just service on its own. We want to show that service-learning is a lot more than social services. Most schools have programs in very diverse fields from engineering to the arts.”


SALT designed to bring Lipscomb’s servant attitude to a new educational level

Lipscomb University has encouraged service work throughout its history, but the SALT program will tie service work to specific learning outcomes and curriculum more closely than ever before.

SALT was designed to fulfill the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Quality Enhancement Plan requirement for reaccreditation, but its goals go far beyond bureaucracy. SALT intends to open the eyes of students to the connections between service work and career, personal interests and spiritual development, to show them how selfless service not only enriches the spirit, but also enriches their college career and their professional objectives.

“SALT will teach students to apply their skills and abilities to specific service projects. It is a great way to connect the academic experience with personal engagement and spiritual development,” said Shatzer. “Beginning in fall 2008, all traditional undergraduate students will be required to complete two service-learning experiences before they graduate. But The SALT Project is less about the number of service hours andmore about the nature of engagement.”.

The SALT Project is innovative among higher education service-learning programs in that it requires students to complete various types of service-learning experiences in order to graduate. The SALT Project’s unique tiered design leads students from relatively

SALT on leading edge of national trend

While service-learning is not a new concept, it became a hot topic in the academic world in the mid-1990s, and has experienced resurgence in the past five years or so, said Shatzer. Major players in the world of higher education are certainly recognizing its value:

  • President George Bush has established an honor roll for colleges practicing outstanding civic engagement;
  • The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has created a Community Engagement Classification to categorize higher education institutions; and
  • Duke University recently announced it will devote $30 million to a new service learning program called DukeEngage.

Lipscomb is also involved with a group of local universities working to establish a Tennessee chapter of the Campus Compact, a coalition of more than 1,000 colleges nationwide who work to combine education and community service.
basic service-learning experiences into ever-deeper engagement in the community and increasingly significant learning outcomes. Students who choose to complete four different types of SALT experiences will receive special recognition at graduation and on their transcript.

SALT will begin this fall with several pilot efforts in departments ranging from Social Work, to Ministry and from business to communication:

  • Students in Introduction to Social Work will partner with agencies from across the social services spectrum, allowing them to use their skills and academic experiences to meet community needs and begin exploring which area of social services they would like to pursue as professionals.
  • Students in Business Policy and Strategy will have the opportunity to conduct a strategic audit for a non-profit organization lacking the staff and capacity to conduct such an audit. Students in this course will hone their business management skills while improving the competitive edge of many non-profit organizations.
  • Other faculty and departments, including the Center for Law, Justice and Society and the Honors Program, are looking for ways that SALT experiences are a natural extension of is the efforts already taking place.

“A primary goal of this program is for SALT service-learning at Lipscomb to be a natural extension of the university service-learning already occurring on campus,” says Shatzer.

  • When The SALT Project is fully implemented, Lipscomb undergraduate students will contribute approximately 100,000 hours of service to community with each cohort of undergraduate students. That level of volunteerism would pump $1.88 million worth of service work into the local community every four years, said Shatzer.



SALT offers students four tiers of service to actively engage them
When SALT is officially implemented in fall 2008, all incoming undergraduate students will be required to complete two types of service-learning experiences before graduating. These experiences may be part of a course, internship, mission trip, research, directed study or service day. Those who would like to achieve the distinction of SALT Scholar may complete additional, more in-depth, service-learning projects.

The four SALT tiers are:
  • Tier 1: 3-5 hours of service connected to a wider academic, social or spiritual context
  • Tier 2: Enrollment in a designated service-learning course
  • Tier 3: Participation in 1.) a mission trip, 2.) an internship with a service-learning focus, or 3.) participation in a multi-disciplinary service-learning project with a team of other students
  • Tier 4: An independent study related to a service topic in the senior year (For SALT Scholars only).

SALT opportunities may be similar to experiences already taking place within the Lipscomb community, such as mission trips, home construction, working at the local rescue mission or volunteering at a non-profit agency, but through SALT, these experiences will be tied to greater academic, civic and/or spiritual understanding through pre- and post- research and reflection.

In general, through SALT students will:

  • Do the service;
  • Reflect on the experience
  • Connect the service experience to learning specific skills and competencies.
For example, home construction can be tied to a leadership-building course by asking the students to focus on team dynamics or communications styles while working together on a build site. Students enrolled in the new Society and the Law course can reflect on the function of the legal system as they partner with a community agency that advocates for victims of domestic violence. Engineering students can complete a needed engineering project, such as designing and constructing a bridge that will improve efficiency and quality of life, while on a mission trip in a Third World nation.