At CTICE, we firmly believe that real-world experience dramatically improves the educational experience for students, at any level in any discipline. Therefore, all CTICE programs use community-based learning (often called service learning) to educate students for lives of social responsibility and civic engagement.

Most CTICE programs focus for-credit courses and co-curricular programs for Columbia University students. But CTICE has developed service learning programs for middle school students, high school students, and adult learners as well.

CTICE’s community-based learning curriculum is unique because …

• it integrates community capacity building and support within formal, curriculum-based learning
• it engages in projects that community groups and partner organizations identify based on formal analysis, rather than on projects that the University offers or decides that it can provide
• it defines project success in terms of tangible results for community partners rather than just focusing on class learning objectives and intended outcomes
• it allows for continuous community engagement throughout the year and across all college years

The CTICE-supported community-based learning curriculum constitutes one of the nation’s largest programs of its kind, involving 800 students per year, awarding more than 1800 credits, and working on more than 100 community projects.