ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the main components of high quality service-learning programmes, illustrates through current global health service-learning programmes that Cornell University's Global Health Program has established in Tanzania, Zambia and the Dominican Republic. Service-learning connects the resources amassed in universities with local and international communities and serves as a nexus for reforming education, transforming students into responsible citizens and addressing societal needs. Global health employers and service-learning educators cite numerous reasons for engaging students in understanding and addressing problems in local and international communities. Global service-learning can help students develop cultural knowledge, humility and empathy in addition to technical and interdisciplinary skills. Service-learning programmes cannot function without well-developed community partnerships that emphasise the importance of reciprocity and significant community involvement. Service-learning offers students a unique opportunity to observe how faculty, peers and community health practitioners and professionals respond to a variety of practical situations.
