We are committed to preparing students for democratic citizenship, strengthening our partnerships for change, and ensuring that our teaching, research, and institutional actions contribute to the public good. Engaging with the community is the means by which we express our scholarly, academic, and professional genes through mutually-beneficial community-campus partnerships.
Academic service-learning is "a course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility."
Bringle, R., & Hatcher, J. (1995). A service-learning curriculum for faculty. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 2, 112.
"Colleges and universities are one of the greatest hopes for intellectual and civic progress… I am convinced that for this hope to be fulfilled, the academy must become a more vigorous partner in the search for answers to our most pressing social, civic, economic and moral problems, and must reaffirm its historic commitment to what I call the scholarship of engagement."
Boyer, E. (1996). The scholarship of engagement. Journal of Public Service and Outreach, 1(1), 11-20.
Faculty & Staff looking to find community organizations to engage with can use the Nighthawk Community Connector.