International Service Learning as Social Value Cocreation

International Service Learning (ISL) is a growing trend in higher education in which students have the opportunity to earn academic credit while participating in community-based service projects. This growth represents an opportunity for NGOs to generate resources for their organization to pursue their mission and generate broader social value. The present work adopts a service dominant logic (SD Logic; Vargo & Lusch, 2004) perspective of value cocreation to highlight the exchange that occurs on two ISL programs based in sub-Saharan Africa. We find that the process of critical reflection on personal fulfillment and social justice serves as the vehicle to create change in (and value for) the program participants. NGOs gain a range of resources including financial, human, intellectual, and social capital through creating this ISL experience with consumers. The current work illustrates how ISL is an opportunity for NGOs to further their mission and serves as a means of sustainable social change.