Service-learning was brought to Wesleyan by student initiative.  A group of students began contacting faculty in the fall of 1995 to discuss experiential learning.  The student/faculty group that developed from this organizing effort met for several months to discuss how best to introduce service-learning to the campus, and by February 1996, the group had agreed that community research was an especially promising possibility because it combined several necessary attributes: 1) a service the community truly needed; 2) clear demonstration of academic rigor; 3) a form of academic activity currently lacking but for which there was considerable student interest.

In late 1996, the group solicited support from more than fifty faculty for a service-learning course. President Doug Bennet immediately expressed approval of the idea and agreed to fund a replacement instructor to free up a permanent faculty member to teach the course. Thus the Community Research Seminar (SOC 316) began in the spring of 1998.  Shortly thereafter two other service-learning courses were created in Sociology: Ethics, Policy and the Triage Society (SOC 311) and The Ethics of Leadership (SOC 312).  Several years later two Service-Learning courses were created in the Psychology Department: Community Development and Organizing (PSYC 301/302) and Community Psychology (PSYC 266).  A number of courses with Service-Learning elements began to appear in the arts as well, and the creation of the Green Street Art Center in Middletown’s North End is expected to dramatically increase the number of such courses. 

All of this is in keeping with Wesleyan’s historical goal of instilling students with “a strong sense of “public purpose and responsibility,” most recently expressed in Wesleyan’s strategic plan, Wesleyan Education for the 21^st Century, but sounded as well in President Wilbur Fisk’s 1832 Inaugural Address:

The student cannot be too impressed with the idea, that to be a mere [person] of letters is not the way to be the most useful [person]. We want [people] who will take the field, and whose souls are fired with a zeal for active duties, in the service of the world.

Accordingly, in spring of 1999, President Bennet asked Rob Rosenthal of the Sociology Department to explore the possibilities for expanding the number and range of service-learning courses on campus.  Discussions with those working on other campuses with thriving service-learning programs led to the conclusion that creating a Service-Learning Center was a natural and necessary next step for Wesleyan.  In 2002 President Bennet and Vice President for Academic Affairs Judith Brown pledged to create an endowment in the coming years to support such a center. 

The Service-Learning Center opened its door in September of 2003, supported in its early years by generous grants from the Surdna and Silverweed Foundations.  The goal of the Center is to add five new Service-Learning Courses a year, distributed across the University curriculum.  As of Spring of 2007, 19 Service-Learning courses existed in nine different departments or programs.