Public service and other projects to benefit the larger community have long been part of a RISD education. For decades Industrial Design students have learned first-hand to be socially responsible through projects ranging from the overhaul of the mobile blood collecting system used by the Red Cross to the design of versatile shelters for refugee populations. RISD students have built Habitat for Humanity houses, worked with community groups to improve neighborhood storefronts, cared for infants with AIDS and worked at soup kitchens. They have brought comfort to malnourished orphans in Haiti and to bedridden patients at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence. They have worked on recycling and water quality projects, designed public parks and innovative medical equipment, worked with town planning boards and created public art. They have also introduced younger students to art through the Studio in the Museum, Wheels of Wonder and Free-For-All Saturday programs at The RISD Museum.

This impulse to reach out for the public good has been strong and steady at RISD, but has recently resurfaced with new energy. In the Academic Plan, Provost Joe Deal emphasizes that community outreach “should be a component of every RISD student’s education.” More and more faculty are developing service-based courses, and students are exploring — and devising — new ways of contributing their time and talents.

In addition to curricular offerings, a Service Learning Task Force at RISD has been exploring other models to promote volunteerism. Strengthening current partnerships with local nonprofit organizations such as New Urban Arts, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, City Arts, Hallworth House and Brown University’s Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service is allowing for further development of work-study, for-credit and other extracurricular opportunities.

RISD’s many advocates for service learning emphasize the life-altering effects it can have. For some students, the experience even leads to unanticipated careers in the nonprofit world. As RISD prepares to implement more programs of this type, Associate Provost Jay Coogan anticipates that service learning will help students better understand “what it means to be an artist, and how an artist can make a positive impact on society.” In fact, as experience has shown, he fully expects “it will reshape many people’s thinking.”