Service Learning
The service-learning component of the program provides students with an opportunity to apply classroom knowledge, explore careers or majors, improve citizenship, understand and appreciate cultural traditions and values, and to develop civic, corporate, and social responsibility. It enhances the students’ personal growth and self-image and enriches the lives of persons within the community. This is accomplished, not through providing interpreting services, but by actively contributing to organizations interested in uniting and promoting persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. Some local organizations and agencies contributing to service learning are Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, Little Rock Black Deaf Advocates, Self Help for Persons who are Hard of Hearing, Arkansas Association of the Deaf, and Little Rock Association of the Deaf. The Louisiana Career Development Center provides annual opportunities for students enrolled in the “Interpreting for Persons who are Deaf-Blind” course. Service learning establishes collaborative, reciprocal partnerships between UALR and the Deaf Community, providing students with experience-based language learning.