How to involve, motivate and sustain students in service learning programs

In recent years, service learning has gained much attention among universities as a complementary form of teaching and learning. Despite the popularity of such programs, very often, service learning activities have no standard framework and hence suffer from problems such as lacking attractiveness and sustainability. This essay therefore seeks to provide insights on key elements that could contribute to a high quality service learning program that emphasizes student involvement and sustainability.||In the past 6 years, as a student run service learning organization in Hong Kong, we have delivered more than 24 service trip projects with more than 300 student volunteers participated, serving 22 target schools in mainland China and Taiwan. From both our experience and a recent survey carried out among project participants, we suggest that an attractive and sustainable service learning project should first be able to present high quality program content that generates profound social impact. Next, the program should provide team members sufficient autonomy in designing the program contents themselves. Lastly, the bonding of the students themselves is crucial. It assures commitment, sharing, and sustainability from one batch to another, and ultimately creates unique experience, inspires minds, and stimulates positive long-term impacts.