“The University, in celebrating its Carnegie recognition, is beating the drum of collaborative engagement, examining what and how it can, in its policies and in its practices, be more not less. More that is not the result of addition, but the result of “leaning effectively”, realigning, relying upon the relational features of higher education’s full purposes, championing how higher learning is inextricably connected to the civic, to well-being and the forming of greater purposefulness and self-identity, to exploring the larger world and what it will take to live meaningfully in that world.”

Donald Harward, March 9, 2015

Community engagement projects provide students, faculty and staff with meaningful educational experiences. Through academic service learning, community based research, arts based research and civically engaged volunteerism, all partners gain in multiple ways, including content knowledge, civic responsibility, and multicultural awareness.

The workshop will begin with faculty, staff and student examples of community engagement projects that span the missions of the university – teaching, research, artistic expression, and service. Next, the participants will gain knowledge and skill in designing mutually beneficial and scholarly community engagement projects. At the conclusion of the workshop, each participant will be prepared to implement a community engagement project.

Following the workshops, a small group of faculty will be invited to become members of a community engagement learning community. They will each receive a $500 stipend for their participation. The faculty will attend workshops and continue creating and implementing their community engagement project during the 2015 – 2016 academic year.