Andrews University
Presidential Statement on Civic Engagement - Niels-Erik Andreasen, President of Andrews University
Two educational principles, the development of responsible citizens and their preparation for professional service to church and society, heavily influenced the founders and early leaders of Andrews University. They spoke relentlessly of the holistic development of all the human potentials, body, spirit and mind, as well as of the importance to prepare oneself for devoted service to others through education of good quality. Education, the founders of Andrews University said, is a "harmonious development of the physical, the mental and the spiritual powers" that "prepares the students for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come."
From this early beginning in urban Battle Creek, the college moved to a much larger rural campus near Berrien Springs, Michigan in 1901. After adding a graduate school and a school of theology, it became Andrews University in 1959. But change did not preempt the principles of its founders. The three Latin words, mens, spiritus, corpus on the University seal are a visible reminder of that fact.
During the past two decades Andrews University has become far more deliberate about providing students with service opportunities. The introduction of the Community Service Assistantship Program (CSAP) led the way by providing students with work-study experience in local agencies, institutions and services. Real-life, hands-on experiences met documented needs of the local community under the supervision of professionals.
Recognizing how this enhanced the students' education, the University redesigned its general education curriculum to include a required course in the philosophy of service, followed by a required service learning activity designed by each student in collaboration with a service-learning coordinator. During their senior year the students must evaluate how their service experience contributed to their chosen specialization or profession.
Behind these exercises lies the premise that community service and civic responsibility, like other human traits, are acquired most effectively through repeated reinforcements that lead to habits of service. Effective service learning is not unlike what religious people call a conversion, or life-changing experience. Just as a literate person is someone who not only knows how to read, but reads widely and frequently, so also, according to the founders of Andrews University, the desirable kind of service learning continues throughout life, changes a persons's character, and touches every aspect of the human experience.
Andrews University 's experience with service learning suggests a mutual transformation. By this we mean two things. First, service learning not only benefits the external community but also-perhaps in more subtle ways-benefits the university community. Both university and community become changed. Second, service learning implies that the university teaches students to serve willingly and effectively in the community, but service also becomes a teacher. Students who serve become changed in their outlook, attitude, understanding and values. During my six-year tenure as president of Andrews University, I have been informed repeatedly by community leaders that before the introduction of the service component in our educational programs a virtual fire wall existed between campus and village, but that now, after decades of community involvement by students and faculty, gaping holes have appeared in that wall. And a remarkable thing has happened: We have discovered that as the community needs us, so we need the community. That awareness will do much, perhaps more than all our programs put together, to make community service and civic responsibility a habit-forming reality.