Many of our courses involve Service-Learning projects or client-based projects, in which students work with local non-profit organizations to put the skills taught in class into practice to serve the New River Valley community.

A significant component of any class, service-learning projects involve many hours of hard work, and both the organizations and the professors who participate take time to recognize the impact of each student's contribution. Often, our students also participate in university events, such as the annual Service-Learning Fair and faculty workshops to highlight their work and share their experiences.

These projects offer students a chance to produce materials for their portfolios, while helping organizations on and off campus. Below you'll find examples from various classes that describe the projects and provide links to the results.

Visual Rhetoric and Document Design (Prof. Jim Dubinsky, Fall of 2000)

The students enrolled in this class were divided into two teams, which worked for either the SEEDS organization or the Virginia Tech YMCA. Each team developed materials specific to their chosen organization's needs. The YMCA team created an historic brochure, a PowerPoint slideshow, and an online slideshow. The SEEDS team created a full color brochure and a website.

YMCA: YMCA Brochure (PDF) Online Slide Show

SEEDs: Brochure Website

Document Design (Prof. Eva Brumberger, Spring 2002)

Students worked in teams of 4 to create promotional materials for the Department of Wood Science at Virginia Tech.

Writing for the Web (Dr. Marie C. Paretti, Spring 2002)

Students worked in teams of 4 to develop web sites for two different campus organizations - the Department of Wood Science and the Center for Wireless Telecommunications.