The University of Alabama’s philosophy department will be offering a new course next semester to allow students to experience firsthand what they are learning in the classroom.

Philosophy professor Rekha Nath will teach PHL 231, Social Justice in Practice. The course is being offered to students enrolled in Nath’s section of PHL 230, Political Philosophy, as a complement to the materials being covered in the course.

Students in PHL 231 will spend more than 15 hours throughout the semester volunteering in the community with Tuscaloosa’s One Place, Project Literacy and the Druid City Garden Project. Nath said the course will give students the opportunity to apply the ideas they will learn in political philosophy to the real world.

“I’ll be teaching a new undergrad course that provides students with the unique opportunity to study theories of justice in the classroom while getting hands-on experience volunteering with a local community service organization,” Nath said. “The aims of the service-learning component of the course are to expose students to practical issues that they may have had no prior exposure to, as well as to draw on these service experiences to critically assess different viewpoints on social and political issues.”

According to Nath, PHL 231 is a one-credit hour course that, along with volunteering in the community, will meet bi-weekly for discussions.

The first of its kind at the University, Nath said PHL 231’s goal is to bring community service into the classroom. Other University departments will be offering similar service-learning courses in the future, Nath said.

“This is the first time the philosophy department will offer a course with a service component,” Nath said. “Other departments and programs, including the business school, the health sciences, gender and race studies, anthropology and telecommunication, will be offering similar new courses in the coming semester that integrate community service projects with learning in the more traditional classroom setting.”

Robert Pendley, a sophomore majoring in political science from Lacey’s Springs, Ala., took Nath’s political philosophy class in fall 2011. He said he is glad the University is moving towards offering more service-learning courses, especially in the philosophy department.

“I was surprised when I first came to Alabama that there were basically no service-learning classes dealing with the reasons why service is a good venture,” Pendley said. “PHL 231 will hopefully be the first of many courses that will start to be offered directly related to service-learning. I think that this is a great course offering.”

Jenna Reynolds, a sophomore majoring in philosophy from Atlanta, Ga., also took Nath’s political philosophy class. Reynolds said Nath is the right person to teach the course because of her engaging teaching style.

“Dr. Nath will do a good job teaching this course because it is evident that she cares for her students and the community and is passionate about social justice,” Reynolds said. “I feel like she engages everyone in [her classes] on important philosophical issues and discussions without letting her own views interfere.”

Reynolds believes community service is an important part of life and is glad the University is moving to incorporate more service-learning courses into the standard course of study.

“Working in your community in order to improve the lives of others around you is an essential part of being not only a college student, but also a human,” Reynolds said. “I think we should strive to make the world a better place with each action we take, and working in my community to help others makes me feel like I am making a difference. Everyone deserves to feel like they’re making a difference, and the world deserves people who try to make it a better place.”