ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines and analyzes an assignment that was applied in several international service-learning programs. This project applies a hybrid model incorporating “project-based” and “pure” service-learning in an International Human Services academic program operating in multiple locations, including Benin, Costa Rica, India, and Mexico. Service-learning is understood as an opportunity “to connect the personal and intellectual, to help students acquire knowledge that is useful in understanding the world, build critical thinking capacities, and perhaps lead to fundamental questions about learning and about society and to a commitment to improve both”. De Vita et al. explained that the existing literature does not provide an easy formula for building organizational capacity; however, one of the critical elements they identified was determining the basic needs and assets of the community. Insider-outsider tension has been a regular theme in community development and organizing in the United States. Lessons learned in that arena can be applied to ISL programs.
