Diversity is not the only element that could enrich the academic experience at Georgetown. Service can, and should, be integrated into the core undergraduate requirements.

While a number of Georgetown students participate in volunteer or community service programs, the university’s message of service often gets lost in the shuffle of classes, jobs and internships. Helping others and promoting social justice, however, should neither be relegated to the back burner nor be the burden of a small group of students. It should be an integral part of any Jesuit education.

To promote the importance of service, the university should require all students to fulfill an academic-based service requirement in order to graduate. The requirement would not constitute an extra class, but could be tagged onto another core requirement course. Ideally, no course would have a mandatory service component, but courses in several departments would offer service options that could be completed for a fourth credit. Such a requirement would add a dimension of real-world experience to core classes.

Students learning about child development in a psychology class or socioeconomic disparities in a sociology class, for instance, might volunteer at a school in a poorer district. Those interested in medicine could sign up for a course like Biology of Drugs and People, which offers an optional service credit. Work with community organizations, nongovernmental organizations or religious institutions across the District could qualify as service.

While it might seem to some that requiring service would defeat the purpose of volunteer work, the benefit of the requirement would lie more in its role as a learning experience than as an act of altruism. Just as a diversity requirement would ensure that students are exposed to a variety of minority perspectives, a service requirement would expose students to sectors of society they might not otherwise have witnessed firsthand.

Georgetown already has a great model that could serve as a template for a service requirement. The Center for Social Justice’s 4th Credit Option for Social Action allows students to supplement their coursework with 40 hours of service throughout the semester, three discussion sessions and three reflective essays. Once completed, students receive an additional fourth credit for their class.

Many schools offer a service-for-credit option, but none seem to mandate it. Georgetown can set itself apart by taking that next step. Georgetown students attend one of the most elite and privileged universities in this country, and it’s time that we all share that good fortune with those who need our help.