RAPID CITY - Everything about Kandyce Wright's college education seemed to come full circle last spring, and it was far from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus when it happened.

Wright, who studied industrial engineering before switching majors at the School of Mines, spearheaded a service-learning project to Chile as part of an on-campus group she helped start called Engineers and Scientists Abroad.

"We took the knowledge and common sense of the classroom and put it to use," she said.

Wright and eight other students visited a remote village in the Andes Mountains last May to design a unit that could supply power for a school building site for Vocations for Orphans.

The group at the School of Mines is only one of many organizations being formed at colleges and universities nationwide to take part in service-learning projects in local communities, statewide and abroad.

Engineers Without Borders, a national organization that assists people living in developing countries, was the catalyst for Wright to help found the ESA group.

"Our main mission is to give students at (the School of Mines) a chance to use what they are learning in the classroom to help and travel the world," she said.

Members Travis Walker, Teneil Ryno, Katrina Donovan, Elizabeth Baker, Yasmin AbuAyed, Erik Hoffangle, Americo Zuzunaga, Kristie Murphy and M.R. Hansen, who served as an adviser, also made the trip to Chile.

Last week, educational institutions nationwide participated in Learn and Serve Challenge Week to raise awareness of the benefits of service learning. Service learning is a teaching method that incorporates community work into the curriculum, so students gain experience and assist communities at the same time.

"That's exactly what happened on the trip," to Chile, Walker said.

"It was a good thing to go and provide our engineering skills (in) another area … and aid them," he said.

Helping out in the community isn't a new concept to him. Walker coaches wrestling at Rapid City Stevens High School and tries to help in the community when he can.

"For me, it's a pretty easy thing to think about," he said. "It's leading by example and encouraging people to go out of their way to be helpful."

He's not alone in his thinking. The U.S. government created Learn and Service America, which enables 1 million students at all levels of education to engage in service-learning projects.

For Teneil Ryno, a sophomore at the School of Mines, service-learning projects revolve around about creating lifelong skills. She said organizing the trip beforehand, communicating with the people in Chile and working as a team were just as important as the work they did while there.

"You (use) skills that you will use on the job, and it's what you might not learn in the classroom," she added.

In the meantime, that's exactly where all the ESA students are - back in the classroom. But maybe not for long, Ryno said.

"It was well worth the experience; we plan on going again," she said.