ABSTRACT
In authentic service-learning contexts, students must face the complexities of society and make decisions of how to interact with individuals and respond to presented needs. Through an intensive immersion, international service-learning (ISL) provides an opportunity for health professions students to explore a different culture and health care system and to develop the critical consciousness of caring health professionals. The Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC) at Creighton University supports ISL experiences in the Dominican Republic based on the philosophies of Jesuit education. Through interprofessional service-learning in hospital settings in China, China Honors Immersion Program (CHIP) intends to increase participants’ cultural awareness and competency, facilitate clinical reasoning, and foster leadership development for societal and global health concerns, along with educate the people of China. Service-learning cannot be a successful pedagogy without partnerships in place that connect students to community members and in which students help meet needs an organization cannot address alone, as exampled with both ILAC and CHIP.
