Will I Need To Participate in a Service Learning Program to Complete My Communication Degree?

Pin It

While some schools stress the importance of a connection between service learning and communication degree programs, not all schools make service learning mandatory for graduation. As a communications major, you learn how to communicate effectively, get your point across to others and listen to their concerns at the same time. Many schools give students the option of taking part in a service learning program or taking an internship during one of their later years in the program.

What are Service Learning Experiences?

Service learning programs combine traditional classroom experience with service to the surrounding community. These programs are common in social work programs and in social science programs. Students focus on giving back to the community and thanking those in the neighborhood for the hard work that they do every day. Students might work at a local homeless shelter, support a shelter for battered women and children or stage a fundraising drive to help a local organization. Other programs include those designed to repair old houses in the neighborhood, clean up a park in the community or tutor underprivileged children. Service learning and communication degree programs teach students how to better communicate with people from different backgrounds.

What Can You Do with a Communications Degree?

According to The Princeton Review, graduates gain skills in persuasive speaking and research skills that prepare them for working in a variety of different fields. Some students use their degrees to work as researchers and journalists for newspapers, television shows and radio stations, while others work with college students in a resident adviser capacity. Other jobs open to communications majors include government researchers, private consultants, school tutors, writers or publishers and marketing experts.

Is a Service Learning Program Mandatory?

When looking at the connection between service learning and communication degree programs, you might wonder if you need to take part in a service learning program before graduating. The simple answer to this question is that it really depends. Many private and religious colleges require that students complete at least one service learning project, which gives them experience outside the classroom. Those schools often require that students from all program do a service learning project and not just those in the communications program. Public schools don’t always require completion of a service learning program. You’ll know exactly what requirements you need to complete when you read through the description of your program in the college’s course catalog.

Communications Internships

Even if your school doesn’t offer service learning programs, you can still gain some more experience. Most schools offer internships for upperclassmen, and you can opt for an internship that takes place during the summer months or in the middle of the school year. You might work for a marketing firm in your city, for a local radio station or for a local newspaper. Taking an internship gives you the chance to network with those working in the communications field, and you might even meet employers looking for full-time workers later.

Service learning programs let you give back to your community and work with people of different ages, races and backgrounds. While some schools emphasize the importance of service learning and communication degree programs, other schools give students the option of focusing entirely on their studies or completing an internship in lieu of a service learning project.

For more information on earning your communications degree, please see 15 Most Affordable Online Communications Degree Programs (Bachelor’s).
Pin It