Originally known as "The International Partnership for Service-Learning™ and Leadership" - IPSL, founded in 1982, is an educational organization serving students, colleges, universities, service agencies, and related organizations around the world by fostering programs that link volunteer service to the community and academic study.
Today, IPSL, a B-Corporation, offers a fully accredited graduate program and credit-bearing, undergraduate service-learning™ programs in nations across the globe—programs in which nearly 4,000 students from more than 400 universities or colleges in the U.S. and 25 other nations have participated.
Programs
IPSL engages students, educators, and grassroots organizations around the world in hands-on service to promote equitable relationships, social justice, sustainable change, and a commitment to our shared humanity.
IPSL programs combine credit-bearing, academic coursework and volunteer service abroad to give students a deeper, more meaningful study abroad experience.
Graduate Programs
IPSL offers two graduate programs that are multi-national and multi-institutional. Students take coursework and choose where in the world they would like to serve. There is a required service-learning reflection seminar (Community Organizing & Social Activism - COSA), which is an academic program created and facilitated by IPSL, designed to give globally minded students a foundation in the history and key practices of community building and civic engagement worldwide, from domestic and international volunteerism, to community organizing, to grassroots social movements and activism.
Undergraduate Programs
Some people learn best in the classroom. Others learn best in the community. At IPSL, we do both. IPSL – a leader in the field of global service-learning – offers a new academic program called COSA: Community Organizing and Social Activism. COSA is designed to give globally minded students a foundation in the history and key practices of community building and civic engagement worldwide, from domestic and international volunteerism, to community organizing, to grassroots social movements and activism – all while ethically serving as international volunteers in communities worldwide. We call it "socially-engaged study abroad."
Research Abroad
Advocacy Research™ is carried out by people who are deeply concerned about social justice. Their research seeks to measure social problems with a view to increasing awareness and influencing political, economic, and social decision-making. IPSL’s mission of service is rooted in advocacy for the NGOs and organizations in which IPSL students serve. Through IPSL’s Advocacy Research™ Program, students can explore what it means to engage in service that helps others, build research skills and provide useful data to organizations around the globe.
Faculty-led
IPSL, in collaboration with partner institutions, has created a broad range of faculty-directed programs at our international program locations. IPSL assists with curriculum development and with cross-faculty collaboration between U.S. and partner faculty abroad. Examples include...
- Spanish Language and Caribbean Studies in Cartagena, COLOMBIA (ten days)
- Health and Social Policy in Port Elizabeth, SOUTH AFRICA (two weeks)
- Alternative Medicine and Therapies for Well-Being, Jerusalem, ISRAEL (two weeks)
