Our History

The WCSC program was founded in 1976 as the Washington Study-Service Year (WSSY), incorporating community living, service learning, academic study, and critical reflection about vocation, servant leadership, and the city. The name was changed to the Washington Community Scholars’ Center in 2002, at which time the program converted to three terms per year (fall, spring, summer), but retained the same core elements.

For over forty years, WSSY/WCSC has emphasized a commitment to group life, cross-cultural understanding, and peacebuilding in diverse and often underserved communities in the nation's capital. These program emphases reflect EMU's commitments to cross-cultural and community learning, to producing students with a global village worldview, and to Biblically-based concepts of peacemaking and social justice.