Friday, September 5, 2014

A New Semester - Fall 2014!

As the new semester begins, so much gets underway - preparing for classes, whether you're faculty or students, getting all of the paperwork done and accurate, bringing our attention once again to teaching and learning, and in our case, engaging. 



Community engagement runs the risk of being today a buzz phrase, words rendered meaningless by the countless ways and settings in which it is used.  In the Center for Community Engagement & Learning and in our attempts to create a culture of engagement throughout the university, community engagement is, as defined by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, "the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity."  

Carnegie goes on to explain the purpose of community engagement as, "the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good."  This is a tall order, but is, in fact, what many faculty at UAA are inspired about creating in their courses, with their students. 






 It's also often what inspires students, as the following selected quotes demonstrate: 


     “As I have taken a few sociology classes and read books on environmental justice, the problems      that arise with a low-income life are not unfamiliar to me.  However, it is completely different to      read about than it is to actually see it.  The 20 hours I spent at the Boys and Girls Club provided me with legitimate connections to the world I had only previously heard about as statistics.”

    “The [service learning] experience at RAIS left me with a new friend and a new understanding.  The refugees did not simply receive help from me, but they taught me about myself.”

      “After taking this class I have learned that social problems can indeed be fought.  Not every problem has a clear solution or can be solved in a single step.  Each step gets us closer to fixing the problem and every step counts.”




Read more in Teaching Excellence in an Engaged University, a publication that highlights stories of engagement across disciplines at UAA on our website at www.uaa.alaska.edu/engage. 



1 comment:

  1. Attempting to define "Community Engagement" may be as hard as the actual process of doing it. With literally dozens of interpretations, it can be a hard fought battle trying to find a sensible definition of the method as everyone utilizes community engagement in different ways.
    Community Engagement Definition

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