Service-Learning Programs

Some of our most significant partnerships in service-learning that allow the university to contribute most to the community are with local K-12 schools, private and public. Through service-learning courses, our students have the privilege of working with schools in the Azusa Unified School District, with private schools in the city of Azusa, and with neighboring cities and school districts.

In addition to local school districts, other sites served by the highlighted programs include Neighborhood Homework House, Elizabeth House, Foothills Pregnancy Resource Center, Redeeming Love, The Let It Be Foundation, Mt. San Antonio Gardens, Oak Tree Lodge, the Department of Children and Family Services, and North Valley Caring Services, to name just a few.

COMM 230 Small Group Communication

Students in this course are assigned to small groups that take on action enterprises (e.g., fundraisers, special events, improvement projects) that significantly benefit local organizations to bring about relevant change in the community; perform some type of community service; conduct training workshops; etc. This course worked with 10 community partners over this past year, providing real benefits to the community while enabling students to learn about small-group dynamics.

EDLS 405 Diversity in the Classroom

Finishing its 27th year, the C.H.A.M.P. (College Headed and Mighty Proud) Program has impacted the lives of 12,757 elementary school students in the Azusa Unified School District. Students in the Diversity in the Classroom course lead small groups of local fourth graders through a curriculum meant to introduce college to the students, working through topics such as majors and careers, financial aid, and college admission. This program includes a visit to APU and a special graduation where parents, teachers, students, and principals are invited to APU to celebrate together.

JOUR 300 Editing

Students in this course work with junior AVID students at Azusa High School to help the students edit and revise a major writing project. APU students apply knowledge they have learned in their editing class to help the high school students become better writers. They spend time building rapport with the students and one-on-one time editing their material.

PUBR 300 Public Relations Management

Students in this course carry a public relations campaign through the entire four-step process of research, program planning, implementation, and evaluation, learning to critically examine situations faced by organizations and how those organizations handled those situations through public relations efforts, preparing the students to enter professional life as creative strategists. In spring 2018, APU students worked alongside North Valley Caring Services in Los Angeles.

SOCW 310/311 Human Behavior and the Social Environment

The Cougar Pals program links Azusa Pacific University students in SOCW 310/311 with middle school students from the Azusa Unified School District. APU students act as mentors to students who have been identified by their school counselors as needing encouragement, motivation, or academic assistance. AUSD students may be referred due to ongoing academic difficulties, self-esteem problems, problems at home, friend issues, or being new to their school.

UNRS 384 Urban/Rural Health

Nursing students and faculty have the opportunity to serve the Los Angeles Skid Row homeless community every spring semester. In class, students learn about urban Los Angeles and the complex health challenges experienced by the 58,000 homeless in Los Angeles County. During a street-based health fair, for example, students witnessed and helped alleviate some of these issues first-hand, providing foot washing, shoulder massages, and wound care. Students also collaborated with a local community clinic, the Center for Community Health, to ensure that clients received a follow-up appointment and medical care. Urban/Rural Health nursing students from Azusa and the High Desert Regional Campus were able to share their clinical skills and Christ’s love with one of the most underserved populations in Southern California.

The C.H.A.M.P. program is a service-learning experience for APU students enrolled in EDLS 405 Diversity in the Classroom, integrating practical site experience of diversity in elementary school settings into the college classroom. This education course is designed to engage prospective teachers with issues such as race, culture, gender, ability, and wider social forces that affect traditional success and failure in the education setting.

Each semester, APU partners with all elementary schools from the Azusa Unified School District (AUSD), assigning APU students to classrooms at the designated school sites to serve as college mentors to groups of 5-7 fourth-grade students. The APU students facilitate activities that correspond to the C.H.A.M.P. curriculum, covering such topics as college admission, financial aid, and career exploration.

The C.H.A.M.P. program has been a partnership between APU and the AUSD since 1991. Academic Service-Learning works to ensure that the program is mutually beneficial, reliably structured, and of the highest quality, with the overarching goal of providing faculty and students with meaningful service opportunities in the community that directly relate to the academic material and learning objectives of each course.

Azusa Pacific University aims to encourage the eighth-grade students of the Azusa Unified School District and St. Frances of Rome to pursue higher education. To do so, faculty, staff, and students from campus join to create a hands-on experience, hosting interactive booths that introduce the many majors a student can choose from when they are college-bound.

This heritage annual event began in 2011 and is unique in its ability to provide access to information leading to excitement about one day attending college. The Eighth-Grade Majors Fair is a strategic follow-up to APU’s College Headed and Mighty Proud (C.H.A.M.P.) program, in which fourth-grade students begin to explore career goals and dream about their future.

APU First-Year Exploring Program students, representing a variety of major disciplines, highlight a number of college majors to local eighth grade students through interactive displays and hands-on activities as part of their academic service-learning experience. The fair provides the eighth graders of Azusa an opportunity to make personal and specific connections to college education—namely, choosing a major.

To experience a little of the fun and excitement of this event, watch some highlights from the 2018 fair.

APU’s Community Engaged Learning Award was established in 2003 and is funded by the Berdena Ruth Foundation. The aim of this award is to promote the ideals of servant leadership in the area of community service. Service performed by the nominated students may have been performed within APU, in the community, internationally, and/or through an academic course. The award is given to two graduating undergraduate seniors. Each student receives a monetary award of $1,200, $200 of which is donated to a charity of their choice.

There are four areas of servant leadership for which students can be recognized:

• Service within APU
• Service in the community
• Service through an academic course
• Service internationally

This program is funded by an annual gift of $2,500 from the Berdena Ruth Scholarship.

2023 Community Engaged Learning Award

Abigail Brown

International Relations Major Honors Humanities, Christian Ministries & Biblical Studies Minor

During her time at APU, Abigail has been an Alpha leader for APU’s Alpha program where she participated in Vision L.A. That allowed her the opportunity to work with Union Rescue Mission and the L.A. Regional Food Bank. She was a co-lead for APU’s Global Engagement team to Amsterdam, and a co-lead for the team that served in Wauchula, Fort Meyers, and Sarasota, Florida that helped with relief efforts after Hurricane Ian in partnership with Praying Pelican Ministries.

Abigail says her involvement with service has shaped her growth and development by learning from the people she served and seeing how God reveals himself in each of these individuals. She stated, “Jesus, if we look closely, is in the people we serve. He is walking alongside us as we enter their pain. He is and always will be there; when we enter their context, He welcomes us into the work of compassion. The work that we were never worthy of doing but that He invites us to do anyways.”

After graduation, Abigail is planning to travel to Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina where she will be spending two years to serve college students as part of APU’s “Go and Prepare” cohort to share the truth of the Gospel.

Matthew Campos

Psychology Major Sociology & Spanish Minor

Matthew has been a part of service during his time at APU by being an APU Alpha leader, an APU Alpha coordinator, a local engagement coordinator with the Office of Service & Discipleship, a Young Life Capernaum leader, a tutor and mentor for APU’s TRiO Upward Bound, a volunteer Resident Companion at Mankowski Homes, and a tutor and mentor for Our Neighborhood Homework House. He has also participated in the APU Global Engagement team to Guatemala and is also a co-lead of the Global Engagement Team going to Avance Mexico City.

Matthew believes that by engaging with our communities we are able to better understand the heart of our Creator. He stated, “the more we celebrate, uplift, partner with, and engage those around us, the more we are aware of the Lord’s heart for the community we are in. We serve in a community to know that community. While service can be a tangible contribution, community engagement for myself has often looked like seeking to uplift the stories and experiences of the diverse communities around me.”

Matthew plans to pursue a Master’s of Public Health where he will use his knowledge and experiences to partner with underserved communities to promote health equity. He states, “when we seek to serve through community-centered and community-led approaches, we emulate the heart of Jesus by honoring diverse communities in culturally competent ways.”

Past Recipients

Community Advancement Programs is housed within APU’s Center for Career and Community-Engaged Learning, which cultivates academically integrated learning experiences for community impact, professional development, and lifelong learning.

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