Community Learning and Service Partnership

The Community Learning and Service Partnership (CLASP) is a participatory adult learning program designed to create and support one-on-one mutual learning partnerships of Cornell employees and Cornell students.

CLASP matches employees interested in pursuing self-selected learning goals with students studying adult and community education.  Meeting together weekly, each Learning Partner pair focuses on the employee’s goals, while both the adult and the student benefit from the working relationship.  The employee gains a supportive learning mentor while the student serves as an adult educator, applying in real life, the principles and methods of adult learning studied in class.

In its 30+ years as a program, CLASP has made a social impact by :  

• Increasing access to educational opportunities that further human potential;
• Developing the abilities of individuals for greater agency and fulfillment; and,
• Appreciating similarities and differences between people through relationships of mutual respect.