This case study reports on the outcomes of a collaborative service-learning project that connected a teacher educator of color (the author) and her 19 racially diverse university students with 26 urban elementary students and their teacher (also of color). The purpose is to explicate how the service-learning experience impacted the university students' awareness of, commitment to, and understanding of culturally responsive practice as a challenging aspiration with real-life implications for serving diverse children and youth. The conceptual framework integrates theories from critical approaches to multicultural service-learning and culturally responsive teaching to problematize the social construction of "differences" in educational spaces by focusing on the complex interactions among and between language, literacy, and race in school-based settings. The findings illustrate how this collaborative service-learning project, while mutually rewarding in many respects, came with several challenges. The final section will offer implications that further explicate the intersections between service-learning and teacher preparation programs, particularly focusing on possible curricular, pedagogical, and programmatic solutions.