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Bonner CEL Initiative - Campus Examples

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Overview  |   Request for Proposals (RFP)  |  Campus Examples  |  Documents to Download

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Campus Examples

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As of the second year of the Community-Engaged Learning Initiative, more than half of campuses in the network have participated either in 2019-2020, 2020-2021, or both. The following colleges and universities are a part of the national learning community, building communities of practice at their own institutions and connecting those administrator and faculty change agents and scholars with others.

 

Institutions include:

Allegheny College Averett University Bates College Berea College Brown University Capital University Christopher Newport University Colorado College CSB/SJU

Edgewood College Kentucky Wesleyan College Lindsey Wilson College Mars Hill University Maryville College Montclair State University Morehouse College Rutgers University - New Brunswick Sewanee – University of the South

Siena College Stockton University UNC Chapel Hill University of Lynchburg Wagner University Warren Wilson College  Washburn University Washington & Lee University Widener University

 

Below is a snapshot of each institution's proposed activities.

 

A Snapshot of Institutions’ 2019-21 Initiatives

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Finally, we invite you to skim these profiles, which describe the focus of the institutions work. For those that were involved in both 2019-20 and 2020-21, the summary includes both years.

 

• Allegheny College (Meadville, PA) is working to embed CEL across the curriculum, including with general education requirements. Last year, the CEL team engaged faculty who teach first year seminars to embed CEL in their coursework, involving more than 40 faculty, partners, and students in a spring professional development forum. This year, Allegheny will focus on expanding faculty and partners who are engaged through the Allegheny Gateway Network, its campus-wide structure for engaged research. Dr. Lauren Paulson, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Dr. Dave Roncolato, Director of Civic Engagement and Professor of Community and Justice Studies, and Michael Williams, director of the Gateway Network will create a structure for managing community-engaged research requests. Further, they will produce a robust publication, highlighting narratives of the faculty members who are involved in this work and a resource for faculty assuming positions on Allegehny’s Faculty Review Committee with a view to advancing the culture of community-engaged learning at Allegheny.

 

• Averett University (Danville, VA) connected CEL to its aspiration to be a premier student-centered university renowned for innovative teaching and engaged learning. Last year, the Center Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness (CCECC) adapted its 2020-2025 “Points of Light” strategic plan to address changing needs of the Dan River Region, including developing a collective impact model for partnerships. April Love-Loveless, Director of the Bonner Leaders Program, and Dr. Billy Wooten, Associate Professor of Communication and Executive Director of the Center, Averett engaged a Service-Learning Fellowship cohort of ten faculty from French, Communication, Business, Nursing, Psychology, Biology, English, and Music. A community needs assessment of 200+ nonprofit and for-profit partners identified projects. A Career-Development Fellowship engaged seven faculty from Biology, Computer Science, English, Physical Education, Sociology, French, and Business to institutionalize career development focusing on access and success. The Bonner Leaders Fellowship engaged seven faculty from Nursing, Communication, Physical Education, Music, Education, Computer Science, and Biology to work with students on capstones. As a result, Averett has 12 new service-learning courses, at least 26 career experiences, and six new Bonner placements. 

 

• Bates College (Lewiston, ME) created a unique Faculty Fellows Program that engaged key leaders in system-building projects. The program built upon Bates’ experience with its Publicly-Engaged Pedagogy initiative. Darby Ray and Ellen Alcorn of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships led this team, with support from colleagues in institutional technology, research, and community-engaged learning. Assistant professor of Biology Andrew Mountcastle developed and piloted a new online platform, BatesConnects, which allows Bates students to “advertise” a range of services to K-12 teachers, and K-12 teachers to “shop” for educational services that fit their classroom needs. While COVID-19 slowed finalizing the online system, the platform promises to become a staple of community-engaged learning courses from across the campus and will strengthen partnerships. Faculty Fellow Kathryn Graff Low, Psychology, examined institutional revisions to tenure and promotion policy and practice. Her work will inform institutional changes to ensure that community-engaged teaching and scholarship are more robustly acknowledged as valued faculty pursuits. Finally, professor of Sociology Emily Kane researched and developed new tools for assessing the outcomes of community-engaged learning at Bates, which will provide a richer picture of the experiences of students (including sensitivity around issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and other aspects of identity) and their learning. This year, Bates will focus on coruses and pathways for racial justice, with a veteran professor of African American Studies training more than ten faculty. 

 

• Brown University (Providence, RI) created a Community- Based Learning and Research (CBLR) Fellows Program involving highly engaged undergraduate students as partners with faculty in planning and implementing community-engaged courses. Kate Mason, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, a Swearer Center Faculty Fellow, and Julie Plaut, Director of Faculty Engagement and Research in the Swearer Center and an Assistant Dean of the College, engaged four student and two community partner “program builders.” After finishing the design, the team shifted to recruiting and selecting students and faculty to work together in the 2020-21 program pilot yearm as well as capture recommendations for training the fellows and evaluating the program. By mid-April, the team had successfully matched 12 students (including 2 Bonners) in one- or two-semester partnerships with 10 faculty in Anthropology (2), Education, English, Environmental Studies, French, Literary Arts, Public Health (2), and Theatre Arts and Performance Studies. The Swearer Center’s Faculty Fellows and four faculty/staff/graduate student learning communities continued to meet in the spring semester though the pandemic hindered some participation. Julie Plaut and a colleague from Brown’s Digital Learning & Design team also facilitated three separate, optional reflective strategy sessions with faculty who had shifted their engaged courses to remote instruction. Respondents to an evaluation survey reported significant benefits, including an understanding of engaged scholarship at Brown.

 

• Capital University (Columbus, OH) links its strategy to a current institutional strategic plan focused on “Doing what’s best for our students, our community, and our society.”  Two Faculty Fellows, Laura Kane and Sherry Mong and Stephanie Gray Wilson, Professor of Psychology and former Assistant Provost of Experiential Learning, provided leadership for the project during 2019-2020. The Community Engagement Working Group, which includes all members of the CEL Initiative as well as other faculty and staff who support curricular and co-curricular community engagements, developed guidelines and procedures for designating courses as Civic/Community-Engaged (CE), which were approved by the Curriculum and Signature Learning committees in January. Three CEL course development grants were awarded for the Faculty Cohort to support creation or modification of courses for Capital’s Civic/Community Engagement (CE) course designation. Once approved, each course will become part of the developing Social Justice minor. A Social Justice Community of Practice has been engaged to identify courses for the Minor. In addition, the group discussed the development of Social Justice seminars and a Social Justice Capstone. Laura Kane is focusing on connecting the Bonner Leaders’ community engagement experiences to their curricular experiences. All Bonner Leaders will add the Social Justice Minor, with Kane as their advisor for the capstone. 

 

• Christopher Newport University (Newport News, VA) will work on four projects as part of the Community-Engaged Learning initiative: 1) Create a database of all CNU courses that correlate with Center for Community Engagement’s service tracks, and work with faculty from those courses to integrate community engagement component in those courses; 2) support faculty members to incorporate community-engaged teaching and learning through workshops, resources, and stipend; 3) assign a faculty mentor for Bonner Capstones; and 4) develop and implement an assessment instrument to determine the progress and future direction of community engagement at CNU. These efforts will be led by Vanessa Buehlmman, Director of the Center for Community Engagement and CNU Bonner Service Scholar Program; and Elizabeth Gagnon, Senior Lecturer, Leadership and American Studies and Academic Director of the Center for Community Engagement.  

 

• College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University (St. Cloud, MN) linked its approach to graduation distinctions and institutional learning goals. Through “Serve Graciously,” students participate in significant engagement with the community, including CEL. The Office of Experience and Professional Development (XPD) supported efforts by creating a faculty cohort focused on a new pathway for Justice. Adia Zeman Theis, Assistant Director of XPD, and Theodor (Ted) Gordon, Visiting Professor in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, led this work. Three faculty members, including Brittany Merritt (History), Emily Heying (Nutrition) and Deborah Pembleton (Global Business Leadership) met throughout the year. Merritt developed an upper division Honors course on the colonization of Africa, partnering with a non-profit that serves Somali refugees. Students interviewed members of the Somali community to learn their perspectives and develop a website with their stories. Heying partnered with Gordon to develop a course on Food Sovereignty with Nay-Ah-Shing, a K-12 Ojibwe school. Students conducted nutritional analyses that compare Ojibwe and American diets and develop activities on nutritional benefits of food sovereignty. Pembleton developed an upper division Global Business Leadership course that focuses on Native-owned businesses, partnering with a Dakota chef who operates a food truck and catering service featuring Indigenous foods. This year, the team will focus on project-based work that benefits the community while leveraging student skills.

 

• Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO) focused on developing its Collaborative for Community Engagement (CCE’s) effectiveness to advance Colorado College's strategic plan, "Building on the Block." The team leveraged Colorado College’s unique approach to education, a “block” schedule of 3.5 week-long sequential courses, while enhancing its distinctive place of learning in the Pikes Peak Region. Jordan Travis Radke, Director of the CCE, and Eric Popkin, a long-time engaged scholar, community organizer, and sociologist specializing in immigration and globalization, led the efforts to launch the PEAK Inquiry Project. PEAK, an acronym for “Publicly Engaged, Actionable Knowledge,” is a program through which community-based organizations and city departments can share knowledge- and research-based project ideas to share with CC students, faculty, volunteer teams, and courses. CCE staff and faculty allies then connected requests for community-driven projects with relevant teaching, learning, courses or research with faculty and student change-makers.  In 2019-2020, the team organized around several key issue areas and began to reorganize the Bonner Program’s work along those issues as well. Visit this website to learn more about the PEAK Project. 

 

• Edgewood College (Madison, WI), a Dominican institution, engages students within a community of learners committed to building a just and compassionate world. Its current Strategic Framework, Pathways to Purpose, is anchored in three pillars - student learning, inclusion, and community impact. Edgewood engaged a cohort of faculty to integrate the Bonner community engagement and capstone experiences with the Enriched Learning initiative in its COR 2 curriculum. They envisioned pathways that build on their existing engagement in areas like social and environmental justice, diversity, and political engagement and involve a combination of research, study away, and internship projects. Virginia V. Lee, Director of the Bonner Program, Karen Pritchard, Bonner Program Assistant and J. Ashleigh Ross, instructor in community-based learning, led the team. The cohort met regularly to gather stories about COR 2 courses and begin collecting processes. Linking its strategy to the "Study, Reflect, Act" component, the team worked to create a ”COR 2 Enhancement Pathway" by bringing together faculty, students, and community partners to identify themes. When 2019-2020 brought major restructuring, the team engaged Shad Wenzlaff, Undergraduate Research Coordinator, to focus on expanding undergraduate research, capstones, capacity building, and community-based projects. Additionally, the team work work with a new Vice President for Mission, Values, and Inclusion to foster more work on racial justice. 

 

• Kentucky Wesleyan College (Owensboro, KY) is focused on a Strategic Action Plan for “expanding experiential learning” and “developing meaningful links between curricular and co-curricular programs.” Additionally, its current Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) – Writing through Engagement: Improving Student Writing through Engagement in Internships, Service-Learning, and Research, Scholarly and Creative Work – emphasizes community engagement through the Service-Learning component. KWC has developed expectations and rubrics for community engaged learning. With this initiative, the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) aimed to expand innovative and scalable models of service and service-learning to address critical issues in the surrounding community, linking this to the QEP. Christine Salmon, Director and Heather Logsdon, MFA, Associate Professor of Art and Division Chair of Fine Arts and Humanities led this initiative. The faculty cohort focused on developing six community-engaged projects and courses. While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the development of these courses, they are anticipated to either be adapted or rescheduled for spring. The team leaders remarked that the cohort provided a structured space for learning about service-learning and community engagement, as well as community building among the cohort members. 

 

• Sewanee: The University of the South (Sewanee, TN) will focus on collaborative partnerships, devoted to working with others to build community assets that address community-expressed needs. Dr Tiffany Momon, Visiting Assistant Professor of History (public historian) and Dr. Camille Westmont, Visiting Professor of History (historical archaeologist) will develop two new courses as part of the Southern Studies Program to highlight the history of the region as experienced by diverse groups. The public history course will teach students best practices for working with small community history organizations, focusing on the Sewanee Black History Project. The public archaeology project will focus on an archaeological site, the Lone Rock Stockade, which employed convicts as unpaid laborers, As a class project, students will become involved in a campaign for a ballot intiative to rewrite the 13th amendment to remove the "except for punishment of a crime" language for slavery. These two faculty fellows will also collaborate with Daniel Carter, Assistant Professor of Environmental studies and train four other faculty members to develop minimodules that can be integrated into four other Sewanee courses. They will also collaborate with a team working on a related Racial Justice Community Fund project to ensure that Sewanee highlights the untold stories of local African Americans in its orientation, built environment, and coursework.

 

• Lindsey Wilson College (Columbia, KY) creates a living-learning environment, providing a General Education curriculum that prepares students to “acquire the capacity for self-evaluation, demonstrate an awareness of global perspectives and diversity, recognize the values and beliefs of multiple societies, and exhibit a familiarity of the arts.” Last year, the team sought to broaden and deepen its engagement of faculty across disciplines. With support from Academic Affairs in 2019-2020, Natalie Vickous, Director of Civic Engagement and Student Leadership, and Dr. Jennifer Furkin, Assistant Professor of Communication, led the first ever creation of a cohort of five faculty from some of the most popular majors: Religion; Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Management; Art; Physical Education; and, Human Services & Counseling. These faculty participated in cohort trainings and worked on incorporating community-engaged learning into coursework, including a new course entitled Community Art. These efforts significantly enhanced the awareness of the Center for Community Engagement’s role in academic community engagement. Additionally, the team worked on institutional changes, including a new CEL course signifier, collaborating with the Undergraduate Programs Committee and Registrar. These efforts sought to demonstrate the connection of community-engaged learning with retention and graduation, a vital part of the college’s academic mission. 

 

• Maryville College (Maryville, TN) tailored its 2019-2020 work to institutionalize community engaged learning across the College, in keeping with the “Living Our Mission as a Community and With Our Community” pillar of the strategic plan. Informed by its successful Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, Amy Gilliland, Director of Community Engagement and Ariane Schratter, Professor of Psychology, led the expansion of a faculty cohort focused on course development projects that provide scaffolded integrative learning. The cohort worked on CEL projects for a range of courses including Child Trauma and Resilience, Psychology in the Community, Student Teaching, Psychology of Adolescence, Adult Development and Aging, the Educational Preparation Program, Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Sociology, and Latin America - World Cultures. Faculty and student projects were showcased in faculty forums, Partnership Advisory Council meetings, Scholarship Dinners, social media, and the local newspaper. Schratter was awarded the Community-Engaged Faculty of the Year award. Reading groups and discussions of key literature, such as A Crucible Moment, helped clarify future opportunities to engage other departments. The team worked with Faculty Personnel and Standards to make changes to the faculty handbook to support community-engaged scholarship in tenure, promotion, and hiring decisions. Finally, cohort members connected with regional and national leadership opportunities, including Bonner, Gulf South Summit, and Campus Compact. This year, the team will focus on academic pathways linked with an institution-wide initiative to foster greater diversity, inclusion, and racial justice. 

 

• Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ) leveraged its longstanding Community Engaged Teaching and Learning Fellows program, which involves faculty from a wide range of disciplines including, math, theater, Spanish, early child education, sociology, and environmental studies, and others. A key team of experienced leaders focused on expanding and deepening institution-wide pathways and growing the community of practice. The team included Bryan Murdock and Krystal Woolston, Director and Assistant Director of the Center for Community Engagement; Todd Kelshaw, Communication and Media; Jennifer Bragger, Psychology; Emily Klein, Education, and Monica Taylor in Educational Foundations. Drs. Taylor and Klein developed a curriculum that integrated Theatre of the Oppressed practices into two undergraduate courses: EDFD 264: Gender and Education and GSWS 102: Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. Dr. Bragger redesigned the Psychology of Leadership course (PSYC 294) to include a peer mentoring and coaching component and an “Assessment, Challenge, Support” model of Leadership Development. This work effectively expands a CEL pathway in Leadership. To foster institutional change, the team created a Campus-Wide Community Engagement Council, which will oversee and guide policy changes and expand creative fundraising and projects. One project, linked to a pathway in Urban Studies, will involve a local Negro League museum and Hinchliffe Stadium. The Council will oversee a departmental process to reenvision MSU’s General Education program, engaging Dr. Caryn McTighe Musil (AAC&U) as a coach and consultant for faculty discussions throughout 2020-2021. 

 

• Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA), a historically Black institution, develops ‘men with disciplined minds who lead lives of leadership and service’. In 2019-2020, the Bonner Office of Community Service collaborated with the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership AYCGL) to  engage faculty as intra-institutional allies and strategic partners for ‘social justice-oriented leadership curriculum development’ and ‘authentic community engagement.’ Monty Whitney, Director of the Bonner Office and faculty member in Social Work, and Kipton Jensen, Director of AYCGL Leadership Studies, led a team that included Dr. Michael Janis (English), Dr. Matthew Platt (Political Science), Dr. Monique Earl-Lewis (Africana Studies), Dr. Sulayman Clark (Visiting Scholar for Social Justice), Dr. Fred Knight (History and Director of the Institute for Research, Civic Engagement, and Policy), and Kevin Chapman, Bonner Director and Curriculum Fellow. Janis created an inventory of coursework across Morehouse, which informed the team’s work on a technology platform for tracking it. Platt led collaborations with Echoing Green Foundation to expand coursework on social enterprise. Numerous courses – primarily but not exclusively courses affiliated with the Leadership Studies Minor – were revised to enhance the quality of community-engagement activities. The team created a blended-learning course “Introduction to Black Leadership” for incoming Bonner Scholars. This year, the team will focus on integrating CEL with general education, collaborating with faculty who teach First Year Seminars across many disciplines, to forge campus-wide pathways. 

 

• Rutgers - New Brunswick (NJ) is developing a strategy to reshape its certificate offerings and create curricular pathways for civic engagement for all students. The Rutgers’ Collaborative Center for Community-Based Research and Service is partnering with the newly created Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement (DICE) on this project. Together, the team will engage faculty fellows from several of Rutgers-New Brunswick's largest schools to: 1) review current offerings, 2) establish criteria for new community-based learning courses, 3) find synergies/gaps in the curricula, 4) map out pathways and engage department heads in this work, 5) create an advising system, and 6) submit and marshal proposals to the appropriate school's curriculum committees. Through this effort, DICE and the Collaborative Center will be poised to fulfill its promise to elevate community-engaged scholarship and Rutgers- New Brunswick's strategic priority to prepare our students to be "engaged citizens in a diverse world." Another goal of this project is to be more intentional with Bonners, connecting them with the work of the Faculty Fellows, in order to identify and implement capstone experiences. 

 

• Siena College’s (Loudonville, NY) Center for Academic Community Engagement (ACE) launched the Community Engaged Faculty Academy (CEFA) last year, which they will continue to enhance this year. Ruth Kassel, ACE Associate Director, Allison Schultz, ACE Director, and Vera Eccarius-Kelly, ACE Scholar-in-Residence and Professor of Political Science will lead this initiative and engage over 40 Siena faculty during the 2020-21 Academic Year in six (6) faculty cohorts to increase​ the number of courses, research, and mentoring opportunities rooted in community engaged practices on Siena’s campus. Faculty Advocates act as an Advisory Group and Faculty Mentors for institutional change initiatives. Emerging Leaders are working with the Siena Project Incubator (SPIN) faculty and will participate in the Intergroup Relations (IGR) Training and Course Development cohort to embed CEL and Diversity and Inclusion into their courses. Faculty Fellows: serve as Nonprofit Excellence and Transformation (NExT) Mentors. Finally, faculty also serve as Bonner Mentors (for Capstones) and Course Design Fellows.

 

• Stockton University (Galloway Township, NJ) grounded its approach from the Office of Service-Learning, building on existing efforts to engage faculty. Three veteran faculty members became Bonner Faculty Fellows. Dr. Kristin Jacobson, American Literature, focused on modernizing the service-learning course approval system. Dr. Anthony Dissen, Health Science, focused on COSI (Community Outreach and Scholarship Initiative), an undergraduate research corps that connected students and faculty and provided instruction and guidance. Dr. Jess Bonnan-White, Criminal Justice. created webinars on the scholarship of engagement as a faculty resource for other service-learning faculty. Erin O’Hanlon, Service-Learning Coordinator, led this initiative with the three faculty fellows. The project leaders also redesigned the process that designates service-learning courses. They wrote standards that apply specifically to any course at Stockton that holds the SRLN designation. They created an online application, as well as a policy on the review committee and a rubric for reviewing 32 applications last year. Over 50% of those courses received approval on the first application, and approximately 50% were approved after initial recommendations from the committee. Now, 22 courses with the SRLN designation are being offered. The Office of Service-Learning merged with the Stockton Center for Community Engagement to become the Stockton Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning (SCCESL). This year, the team will continue to build out campus-wide strategies for engaging faculty and focus on strengthening pathways.

 

• The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) (Ewing and Trenton, NJ) believes in the transformative power of education to develop critical thinkers, responsible citizens, and lifelong learners and leaders. Every student who attends TCNJ completes a civic learning and engagement graduation requirement, consisting of a signature experience in engagement off-campus during the freshmen year and a course-based experience tied to one's major during the upper-class years. Building on its successful pilot of a social action course, TCNJ will launch a social action faculty course development cohort centered on designing and revising existing courses, providing mutual support, and collaborating in training each other and students in social action techniques. For the 2019-2020 Academic Year, four faculty members have already committed to participate in the Social Action Faculty Group. They are: Dr. Miriam Shakow (Sociology & Anthropology), Dr. Greer Burroughs (Elementary and Early Childhood Education), Dr. Shaun Wiley (Psychology), and Dr. Janet Gray (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies). One more faculty member is expected to join, such that there is diverse disciplinary representation. This cohort will focus on developing policy-focused social action courses centered on environmental and racial justice. It will also engage in related institutional and cultural change efforts to align policies with these efforts and foster academic pathways.

 

• UNC Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC) aims to “serve as a center for research, scholarship, and creativity and to teach a diverse community of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to become the next generation of leaders.” The Campus Y, the lead unit for this initiative and home to the Bonner Program, has been the hub for social justice and innovation for nearly 160 years. It aims to collaborate with the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and especially Innovate Carolina on this initiative. Last year, Richard Harrill and Yalitza Ramos, Director and Assistant Director of the Campus Y, and Melissa Carrier, Director of Innovate Carolina aimed to  team. They hoped to partner with Public Policy, including Dan Gitterman and Anna Krome-Lukens, in order to forge integrative pathways that involve first year seminars, coursework in Public Policy and Global Studies, and community engaged policy capstones. Harrill left UNC Chapel Hill last winter, however, and projects were delayed due to the staff turnover, with Ramos having to cover both positions. 

 

• Wagner College (Staten Island, NY) focused on aligning programming in the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement (CLCE) with the academic curriculum. Arlette Cepeda, Director of the CLCE; Sarah Scott, Dean of Integrated Learning; and Alison Arant, Faculty Director of the CLCE employed a three prong approach to this work which included (1) utilizing their teaching cohort courses as a test ground for aligning CEL goals with general education goals; (2) streamlining their civic engagement minor so that all Bonner students can minor, and so that there is a greater faculty buy-in to encourage their students to pursue this minor; and (3) developing an inventory of community engagement across campus. They facilitated monthly meetings with Bonner teaching fellows and faculty fellows. Faculty members adapted CEL projects in response to COVID-19. Dr. Bernadette Ludwig, Sociology, focused on revising the Civic Engagement Minor to link it with the Bonner Program. Students will take two theory classes, two classes in a concentration, and two internship courses which are built on the Bonner curriculum for juniors and seniors respectively. Faculty fellows worked diligently to create a Community Engagement Inventory. This inventory now provides a framework and definitions that guide CEL work. Second, the inventory identified departmental definitions for CEL work. Third, it catalogued courses in two categories: (1) Community Engaged Scholarship and Learning and (2) Civic Awareness and Public Facing Scholarship and Learning. Wagner eliminated the CLCE this summer to address fiscal problems, and they did not reapply for funds.

 

• Warren Wilson College (Asheville, NC) increased and sustained community engaged learning in the curriculum through two projects under the leadership of Annie Jonas, Director of Faculty Community Engagement, Julie Wilson, Director of the Writing Studio, and Jen Mozolic, chair of the Psychology department. One project builds and implements a curriculum for Warren Wilson students and community partners to create and distribute podcasts focused on understanding and solving local social and environmental issues. This project builds on a successful two-year partnership between the involved faculty and a local third grade teacher creating audio projects as part of an integrated social studies-writing unit. The second project is centered in the Psychology department at Warren Wilson and is focused on creating a structured pathway for students to develop foundational knowledge and research skills that will prepare students to become research fellows with Hinds’ Feet Farm, a local nonprofit serving individuals with acquired and traumatic brain injuries.

 

• Washburn (Topeka, KS) linked its approach to the Strategic Plan Vision 2022 and its focus to expand community-engaged learning and High-Impact Community Engagement Practices (HICEPs) across the institution. Dr. Rick Ellis, Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement collaborated with five faculty fellows in leadership positions to create a HICEP Committee, established as a permanent VPAA Committee to review promotion and tenure guidelines. Furthermore, the committee uses the HICEP Rubric (developed during the Bonner High-Impact Initiative) to promote best practices. Kristine Hart, Associate Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement led a cohort of faculty and staff members to develop academic pathways within general education and academic departments, and to guide Bonner community-engaged capstones. This team also worked on desigining a new Introduction to Community Engagement course, offered as a general education requirement to encourage enrollment. Additionally, students will take two additional courses from their major, minor, or through Honors, Leadership, or LinC, complete at least 150 hours of mentored community engagement work either in a curricular or co-curricular setting, and complete one academic community-engaged project. Once approved by the Curriculum Committee, these pathways will provide valuable opportunities to students for community engaged learning. This year, the team will continue to focus on institutional integration and infrastructure, including establishing GivePulse as a tracking system for the courses and on making changes in tenure policy. 

 

• Washington & Lee University (Lexington, VA) sought to promote greater collaboration across multiple programs and centers, including the Shepherd Poverty Program, Environmental Studies, the Center for International Education, the Mudd Center for Ethics, and the Office of Community-Based Learning, to expand and deepen community-engaged learning and research. The Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability, as the lead, created the Real Opportunities Program, which convened faculty, staff, and community partner fellows to develop community-based courses and projects that examine and address obstacles to community opportunity. The CEL team held four in-person gatherings as a cohort and eight meetings involving grant leadership, faculty and/or community partners. They discussed strategies for mitigating institutional barriers to success of CE coursework. Four courses in Educational Studies, English, Environmental Studies, and Poverty Studies were developed or  redesigned. Two partners, Rockbridge Historical Society and Live Healthy Rockbridge, participated. Howard Pickett, Assistant Professor of Ethics and Poverty Studies, and Marisa Charley, Assistant Director of the Shepherd Program, led the efforts. The team has successfully broadened the number of community-engaged courses in the Poverty Studies Minor and deepened the partnerships to create more meaningful impact on and off campus. While W&L did not reapply for CEL, they have created a team to work on food justice projects and coursework through the Racial Justice Community Fund. 

 

• Widener University (Chester, PA) focused on expanding its integration of high-impact practices that connect students curricular experiences with societal issues. Last year, Gretchen Mielke, Assistant Dean for Civic Engagement, and Marina Barnett, Associate Professor for Social Work and Co-Director of the Academic Service Learning Faculty Development Program (ASLFDP), led the efforts, which also expanded capacity and faculty engagement work by the Center for Civic And Global Engagement. Widener already had a larger Service-Learning Faculty Development Program, overseen by Barnett. The team engaged an advanced cohort of six service-learning fellows in a curriculum mapping process. Faculty representing Chemistry, Communication Studies, English, Environmental Sustainability, Political Science, and Social Work were involved in assessing courses and pathways, in order to find places where greater scaffolded could enhance integrative academic pathways for students. Faculty also served as advisors for senior community-engaged capstone projects. Lori Simons (faculty co-director of ASLFDP) worked on building course tracking and assessment strategies, preparing Widener for the future application for the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification. The team also participated in the Bonner Foundation’s social action course replication. This year, they will engage six faculty in replicating social action projects and expanding community-engaged research and applied projects involving youth in Chester. 

 

• University of Lynchburg (Lynchburg, VA) aims to be a first choice for talented scholars, leaders, and student-athletes who seek a community of engagement, service, and active learning. To advance student learning and achievement, Lynchburg strives to support 100 percent of graduating students to engage in at least three high-impact and experiential practices (such as internships, off-campus learning experiences, research, service learning, and capstones). Last year, the Center for Community Engagement focused on building partnerships across campus, including with the Center for Community Development and Social Justice (CCDSJ), Academic Affairs, and Arts & Sciences, to identify opportunities for community-engaged research and where well-defined, scaffolded pathways may be created. Sharon Foreman, Director of CCDSJ and Cindy Ferguson, Director of OSI, led the efforts. A faculty cohort was engaged to discuss “Pathways for Advocacy and Action” and a new Poverty Studies and Social Justice Minor. With a change in institutional leadership who has now embraced community-engaged learning and research, this year Lynchburg aims to identify civic engagement courses for the new General Education program. To support institutional change, faculty fellows will create a course designator and campus-wide tracking, assessment, and other systems that ensure the quality and sustainability of community engaged learning.