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The Office of Experiential Learning houses the Service-Learning Program at the University of Central Florida. We report to the Office of Undergraduate Studies in Academic Affairs, which gives our programming an academic focus rather than co-curricular. Our institution is a public, multi-campus, metropolitan research university, dedicated to serving its surrounding communities with their diverse and expanding populations, technological corridors, and international partners. The mission of the university is to offer high-quality undergraduate and graduate education, student development, and continuing education; to conduct research and creative activities; and to provide services that enhance the intellectual, cultural, environmental, and economic development of the metropolitan region, address national and international issues in key areas, establish UCF as a major presence, and contribute to the global community. UCF explicitly articulates a commitment to the public purposes of higher education. One of the university’s goals is to “be America's leading partnership university”. Our institution has an established culture of engagement that encourages and nurtures the way in which faculty, students, and community partners experience the goals and priorities of our university. Service-Learning contributes to the overall mission of the university and, more specifically, to the desire to be a “bets partner” to our community. The AmeriCorps VISTA project will enhance the overall effectiveness and quality of our academic service-learning programming in many ways including: helping to build university wide infrastructure to make more visible service-learning opportunities and accomplishments; creating a stronger sense of inclusion in the service-learning community both on and off campus; creating an environment that fosters more thoughtful and thorough approaches to the design and implementation of service-learning projects; assisting in streamlining and enhancing the largest service-learning program in the Southeast; and creating new and ongoing relationships with individuals from the private corporate sector.

The FASS AmeriCorps*VISTA Initiative is a service program that aims to empower students through volunteerism and service-learning to create positive change in our communities. VISTA members earn benefits, including a living allowance, health insurance, student loan forbearance, and a $4,725 education award to apply toward tuition, student loans, or future graduate studies. Applicants from out of state are eligible for a relocation allowance. If you are interested in applying for this position, please visit our website at www.fsu.edu/~vista or contact Tara Glynn at (850) 488-3143.

Contact Tara Glynn at (850) 488-3143 or tglynn@admin.fsu.edu. For more information on the FASS VISTA Initiative please visit www.fsu.edu/~vista.