Service leadership through serving minority adolescents in rural china using a rural version of a positive youth development program

Abstract

With the emerging service economy globally, nurturing university students to be service leaders possessing the leadership qualities of competence, character and care is of great importance. Through service-learning (SL), the academic learning of the students on Service Leadership can be consolidated. In the present study, we piloted a SL subject on Service Leadership in a university in the Southwestern part of China. After learning the basic academic knowledge on Service Leadership, seven students provided service for the Yi minority adolescents in Liangshan using the rural version of the program. To understand the impact of SL on the service recipients, a single group pretest-posttest design was used to assess the changes in Yi minority adolescents (N = 79) before and after they received the service. We also conducted subjective outcome evaluation of the service providers (the university students providing the service) and service recipients (Yi adolescents). Results showed that the service recipients had significant positive changes in the outcome indicators and they had positive perceptions of the program. The qualitative evaluation findings are also encouraging. The findings provide evidence supporting the use of SL in nurturing service leadership qualities in university students in mainland China.