Collaboratively Establishing Memorandums of Understanding to Guide Graduate-Level Service Learning Experiences

Graduate-level service learning experiences come with unique advantages and risks. With advanced training, graduate students hold advanced knowledge and specialized skills. Such knowledge and skill, when applied to work in community settings, could run the risk of colonization and virtue signaling if not informed by community wisdom and if not responsive to the community's requests for services. Graduate students' specialized skills may be particularly valuable to community partners and could also risk the exploitation of graduate student labor if not carefully planned. Memorandums of understanding (MOUs) are tools by which partners can clearly communicate from the outset of service-learning initiatives by collaboratively establishing guidelines that protect the interests of both community partners and graduate students. In this chapter, the authors introduce colonization and exploitation of graduate student labor as two risks that could be associated with graduate-level service learning experiences. They describe MOUs as tools that can reduce risks.