Community-Engaged Learning
Whether teaching local children about cultures around the world or creating bowls for an annual event that raises thousands of dollars for local food shelters, community-engaged learning courses (CEL) help students to connect to our community and grow as students and global citizens.
Juniata College's mission is to empower our students to develop the skills, knowledge, and values that lead to a fulfilling life of service and ethical leadership in the global community. One of our Institutional Learning Objectives for students is to be engaged with themselves and the world, and community-engaged learning provides one pathway to this outcome.
Juniata prides itself on evolving with the higher education community in accordance with research which is why we have modeled our program after the standard created by the Stanford Initiative, which you can learn about in the box on the right.
Local Engagement
What challenges do we face in our local communities, the places where we live out most of our lives with people of diverse lived experiences and varieties of perspectives? How are our values similar (to) or different from those of our local neighbors? What are our opportunities to be agents of ethical change in meeting the needs of the people we live within our local communities? Local Engagement experiences help students develop the knowledge and skills they need to engage effectively with the local communities they will inhabit throughout their lives. Local engagement options address specific learning outcomes designed to help students contribute their knowledge and skills to their local communities through meaningful engagement.
To fulfill the Local Engagement requirement, students must complete a semester-long experience that connects them directly with interaction, collaboration, and/or service in a local community. They must include relevant documentation and at least one written reflection on the experience in their Juniata Portfolio. The General Education Committee will establish criteria for experiences that qualify to meet the Local Engagement requirement.
Sarah Worley
Associate Professor of Communication
Director of Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning
Candice Hersh
Associate Director of Marketing and Community Outreach
The Community Engaged Learning Office is located on the first floor of Founders Hall in the QUEST Office
Juniata College
1700 Moore Street
Huntingdon, PA 16652
Juniata College
1700 Moore Street
Huntingdon, PA 16652