Potentially Potent: Connecting Service United with College Service Learning
Carol Geary Schneider
Director, Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Coalition
October 2026
With fear and distrust of the “other” now a deeply corrosive force in U.S. society, national leaders are renewing calls to make national service a cultural norm. The hope, as our colleagues at More Perfect and the Council on Civic Strength have long urged, is to cultivate civic friendship and a service mindset among individuals and for a democracy in need of repair.
This fall, as Chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), Maryland Governor Wes Moore has launched Service United. The plan offers a year of paid service across the states, with a strong focus on young Americans disconnected from both school and college.
The initiative is inspiring and needed. It’s exciting to see it build—at least potentially—on Governor Cox’s earlier Disagree Better initiative, enacted when he led the NGA.
But these efforts could be even more powerful if we connect service-year initiatives to higher education’s most stunningly successful high-impact practice: college-level service-learning courses that include, as part of the course, collaborative, community-based projects.
Stunningly successful? Take a look at this chart, which CLDE showcased in Every Student, Every Degree: High-Impact Practices (HIPs) — Particularly Service Learning — Boost Academic and Practical Skills.
Well Educated for Democracy, a forthcoming study of students’ college civic learning commissioned by the CLDE Coalition, adds massive new evidence showing that when students take a course that includes a community-based project—the technical definition of a service-learning course—the boost to students’ gains as “informed and active citizens” is dramatic.
As the chart linked above shows, service-learning courses also build students’ practical skills. Further, Well Educated reports that 64 percent of today’s college seniors complete one or more service-learning courses during college.
How can we combine this high-impact practice with a paid service year for young Americans?
Here are some suggestions:
College Students as Peer Partners: Enlist college students—through their community-based service-learning course projects—to serve as peer advisors for young people participating in a paid service year.
We know that students are often trusted sources to other students on how to make the most of college. Imagine expanding that “peer power” to connect advanced college students with those participating in a paid service year. These peer partnerships can open new doors and possibilities for service-year participants as they plan for their future. If peer partnerships are organized through service-learning courses taken by college juniors and seniors, the college students will earn credit toward their degrees. At the same time, the service-year Americans will discover that service beyond self is already an important part of the college curriculum.
The result can be transformative connections between college students already benefiting from service-learning experiences and a generation of young people still seeking a positive direction for their future.
Campus-Community Partnerships as Contexts for the Paid Service Year: Build from the extensive investment that higher education has already made in creating reciprocal partnerships between communities and collegiate institutions.
Across all sectors of higher education, service-learning courses are generally supported by a campus infrastructure that sustains ongoing partnerships with community organizations and local agencies. Powerful as service-learning courses are, they would be impossible to offer at scale without these enabling campus-community relationships
As gubernatorial proponents build Service United initiatives in their states, they can deliberately link paid service-year opportunities to the higher-education infrastructure and community partnerships already in place. With new investments coming, these ongoing campus-community partnerships can strengthen and help the service-year concept flourish beyond the initial launch.
Laboratories for Democracy: Bring states and higher education together as catalysts for democracy renewal.
From the republic’s founding, we have recognized our diverse states as laboratories for democracy innovation. With governors now leading the charge for a paid service year for young Americans, let’s create meaningful connections between higher education’s success in scaling college service-learning and these new state-based Service United initiatives.
Further, as the authors point out in the forthcoming Well Educated study, educators need to know more than we do about what makes service-learning courses so powerful for students. Is it the practical hands-on experience? The chance to develop career-relevant skills? Or is there something about learning to know and respect America’s diverse people that becomes valuable in itself and as a spark for civic healing?
As we expand America’s commitment to public service, let’s take the time to connect the new Service United initiatives with the highly successful college service-learning movement. And let’s delve further into what works best to help Americans create the new cultural norms we so urgently need: mutual respect, collaborative problem-solving with diverse partners, and active engagement with democracy's renewal.