civic engagement

Alvin Chitena '19 has been named a 2018 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact, a Boston-based nonprofit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education. The Newman Civic Fellowship, named for Campus Compact co-founder Frank Newman, is a one-year experience emphasizing personal, professional, and civic growth. Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides fellows with access to apply for exclusive scholarship and postgraduate opportunities. (more…)

This spring, Wesleyan joined Campus Compact, a coalition of more than 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide, to advance the public purpose of Wesleyan by deepening its ability to improve community life and to educate students for civic and social responsibility. In March, President Michael Roth signed onto to Campus Compact's Civic Action Plan. Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Jewett Center for Community Partnerships, and other members of the Civic Action Plan steering committee, are leading conversations on campus and in the community to create an actionable plan to realize Wesleyan's goals. Lechowicz publishes posts about the process on Wesleyan's ENGAGE blog. "We want to hear…

Claudia Kahindi '18 has been named a 2017 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact, a non-profit organization working to advance the public purposes of higher education. She joins a distinguished group of 273 community-committed students, all nominated by college presidents or chancellors, from across the Campus Compact network of schools in this one-year fellowship. The Newman Civic Fellowship is supported by the KPMG Foundation and Newman's Own Foundation. It honors the late Frank Newman, one of Campus Compact's founders and a tireless advocate for civic engagement in higher education. "Leadership everywhere is going through a crisis. Social justice issues and polarisation continue…

Arpita Vora ’16 clicks through a website that seeks to raise awareness about the hardships faced by low-income families in North Carolina. Middlesex United Way, the organization at which Vora was placed through the Center for Community Partnerships’ yearlong pilot Nonprofit Board Residency Program, is hoping to create a similar site using data from Connecticut. (more…)

#THISISWHY In this Q&A meet Alicia Gansley from the Class of 2015. (Story by Rosy Capron '14, civic engagement fellow at Wesleyan’s Allbritton Center.) Q: Alicia, what are you majoring in? A: I'm majoring in computer science and I'm also completing the economics minor and Civic Engagement Certificate. Q: Last fall, you brought your programming knowledge to COMP 342: Software Engineering, a service-learning course where groups of computer science majors develop special projects for local organizations. Tell us more about your project. A: My group made a web application for Green Street Teaching and Learning Center to use to sign students up for one of…

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected Wesleyan to receive its 2015 Community Engagement Classification. “Wesleyan has always been a place where involvement with the world was important, but in the past decade or two we have truly become a much more ‘engaged university’ in many ways, and that’s good for everyone—students, faculty, staff and our community partners,” said Rob Rosenthal, director of the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life, the John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology. “This kind of recognition from our peers across the country reinforces our belief that we’re doing valuable work…

You’d be surprised by what people don’t know about Wesleyan’s community engagement and service programs. Or, what people think they know. “Students and others think that community service at Wesleyan is an individual, versus a university effort, or just one semester for one student, on their own,” said Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Center for Community Partnerships. A new publicity campaign launched by the CCP last month aims to fix those misimpressions. The reality is that Wesleyan has a broad community engagement plan that ranges from hiring local contractors and sourcing local food to providing volunteers to Middletown service agencies,…

Q: Dana, you're Wesleyan's first Civic Engagement Fellow. How do you describe your role? A: As the Civic Engagement Fellow, I focus on promoting civic engagement throughout the entire university, with students, faculty and staff. While the focus may be broad, I mainly work with two specific centers: the Center for Community Partnerships, under Director Cathy Lechowicz, and the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, under Director Paul Gagnon. At CCP, I’m primarily involved in informing students about the many opportunities for immediate impact here in Middletown, and in assisting student coordinators of the Office of Community Service's programs. We’re also developing…

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recently recognized Wesleyan for its continued involvement in community outreach by selecting the university as a recipient of a 2008 Community Engagement Classification. The university was among 119 institutions (and among two in Connecticut) that received this classification for 2008. The foundation initiated the community engagement classification in 2006. Visit this page for more information and a list of the selected institutions. "The significance of Wesleyan receiving the Carnegie Foundation Community Engagement Classification is major in light of this historic moment we experienced this week in our country," said Sonia BasSheva Mañjon,…

Chitena ’19 Named 2018 Newman Civic Fellow

New Civic Action Plan Aims to Create a Civically-Engaged Campus Community

Kahindi ’18 Named Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellow

Pilot Program Gives Students Insight into Local Nonprofits

CS Major Gansley ’15 Hopes to Use Programming Skills to Help with Good Causes

Wesleyan Honored with Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification

CCP’s New Campaign Focuses on Little-Known Facts about Wesleyan’s Engagement

Fellow Pellegrino ’12 Encourages Wesleyan Community to Become Civically Engaged

Carnegie Foundation Honors Wesleyan’s Civic Engagement