Success in service-learning is assessed from a tangible perspective and an intangible perspective. The tangible perspective includes a variety of measurable success points, such as number of items collected, academic lessons learned, and participation rate. The intangible perspective centers around how it makes people feel—the recipient of the action as well as the volunteer. The magical experience involves all parties feeling they have had a positive, effective experience, one the giver would like to repeat.

Through service-learning we hope to engage youth in meeting community needs and start them on a path to lifelong service. A “magical” experience empowers students to look for other opportunities to serve. On the other end of the spectrum, a negative experience may discourage further service.

“Magical” service-learning engages students in projects that use their talents, interests, and skills to address something they care about, with people they care about.

We recognize a magical service-learning experience when students are highly involved, having fun and making decisions with a sense of purpose. A magical experience involves collaborative partnerships and projects that meet real needs with observable results, showing young people they have an important role in the world.

The magical experience makes the volunteer feel good and creates an ongoing desire to continue addressing needs. Of equal importance is how the people who receive the service feel about themselves as a result of the service project.

Here are some of the elements of a magical service experience.

• Led by student voice
  
• Related to the students’ giving passions and talents
  
• Involves working with people the students care about
  
• Addresses the known needs of the community
  
• Involves collaborative planning
  
• Giver and receiver feel good about the experience
  
• Ties to classroom learning
  
• Participants are motivated to engage in a project again
  
• Resources for carrying out the project are in place
  
• Worked toward solving a problem without creating an new one
  
• Infuses sustainability for the continued success of the project
  
• Includes reflection on impact to participants and community
  
• Fun
  
• Out of the ordinary

There are also some elements of a service project or event that for some reason miss the mark and disappoint the participants or the recipients. Some of those reasons may include:

• Boring
  
• Not hands on
  
• Not enough preparation
  
• Disorganization at the time of service
  
• Hurts the cause
  
• Hurt the feelings of the recipient through insensitivity or lack of understanding
  
• Lack of student interest
  
• Lack of student voice and decision making
  
• Little student passion for the cause
  
• Little or no context given for the project
  
• Inadequate reflection
  
• Doesn’t require students to use core academics