Upper Peninsula Teaching & Learning Conference - 2026

Academic Service Learning (ASL) at Northern Michigan University has a proud history, with a particularly robust campus-wide program through 2015. While ASL has never fully disappeared—a dedicated core of faculty has continued to integrate service learning into their courses—the program has not reached its full potential in recent years. 
This presentation shares NMU’s experience as a case study in reinvigorating ASL at a regional university, with lessons and a replicable framework relevant to faculty across the Upper Peninsula.
Grounded in the democratic civic engagement model of service learning—where students, faculty, and community members serve as co-educators and co-generators of knowledge—this session will walk attendees through three interconnected goals: 


1) looking at the history and documenting existing ASL activity as a foundation for growth; 
2) describing a faculty mini-grant model (up to $750) designed to lower the barriers to ASL adoption; and 
3) exploring strategies for building and sustaining reciprocal community partnerships. 


Ample time for Q&A, an opportunity for two-way conversation and sharing successes from other institutions, as well as a possible NMU faculty roundtable will be included.