College Credit

How are CELL’s courses delivered?

Academic work for all courses consists of thought-provoking readings, lectures, discussions, guest speakers, field experiences, community meetings, journals, and service projects.  Service-learning is a key component of our semester programs and links the students’ academic study with the practical experience of community service.  In addition to providing an opportunity for students to apply what they are learning to real-life applications, service-learning also aims to develop in students a lifelong commitment to service and leadership.  Service-learning promotes an understanding of the interrelatedness of communities and societies throughout the world.  Through reflective journal exercises, written assignments, and group discussions, students analyze critically what they are learning from their service-learning experience. 

The interdisciplinary nature of the courses optimizes flexibility for students to transfer college credits into their individual courses of study and institutional requirements.  It is the students’ responsibility to make all arrangements for acceptance of course credit by their individual college or university prior to their CELL semester program. CELL staff, however, are available to assist students with this process. 

In addition to the course instructor(s), CELL uses guest lecturers to support and strengthen the content of the semester program and to provide students with local knowledge and diversity of teaching and delivery styles.

Students live with host families and/or in lodging run by community partners and have classes, lectures, field experiences, and service-learning opportunities in the region where their program is conducted. During experiential-learning, students apply what they have learned in the classroom to real-life problems in the communities where they are studying.