In 2017, President Troy Paino shared his Strategic Vision for UMW and his desire to “instill the value of service across the university” for students, staff, and faculty. Part of this strategy includes supporting community-engaged learning in UMW classes.
UMW uses the term “community engagement,” but other people will call similar work “service learning” or “civic engagement” or “community-based learning.” But they all mean the same thing: Combining academic content and work outside of the classroom to promote enhanced learning and the common good. Community-engaged learning is considered a “high impact” teaching strategy, and is being embraced in many universities, across disciplines, for that very reason. In addition, these classes have many advantages for students:
- They help students understand “real world applications” of course material.
- They give students experience with problem solving, communicating across differences, and working through complexity and ambiguity.
- They help increase personal efficacy as well as networking skills.
Approaches to community-engaged courses vary enormously. Some UMW courses require students to volunteer with a local nonprofit organization, while other courses conduct community-driven research projects. In addition, many courses introduce community-based projects that require student to work with local partners to find a solution to a relevant problem. UMW Faculty and students have been honored to work with a range of community groups in the greater Fredericksburg area for many years now.
For example, UMW professor Dr. Kashef Majid works with his Marketing students to collaborate with a broad range of Fredericksburg-area businesses to develop creative marketing strategies. A recent class collaborated with Fredericksburg Economic Development and Tourism (EDT) to create marketing materials designed to attract new international visitors to the City of Fredericksburg. This partnership included EDT staff lecturing at UMW to explain existing domestic and international tourism efforts and basic tourism marketing principals. Students then worked with Dr. Majid to produce electronic ads. Dr. Majid’s classes also conducted focus groups with several local businesses, including a new restaurant, The Falafal Joint. The students provided advice on menu items and how to overcome a lack of knowledge about Mediterranean food. A year later, the restaurant has seen success in terms of increased awareness and popularity.
Students from a Historic Preservation class, taught by Dr. Cristina Turdean, recently worked with the James Monroe Museum to research, compose, and install a new exhibit. This hands-on, real-world learning experience was valuable for the students, and the museum benefited from updated exhibits and materials.
The UMW Center for Community Engagement works with faculty to help them design community-engaged classes, find community partners, and brainstorm about ways to align student work with community concerns. “We see great value in connecting students to community partners,” stated Dr. Leslie Martin, faculty director of the Center for Community Engagement. “We appreciate the opportunity to work with community partners to provide a unique learning experience for students, and hopefully help generate positive, community-driven social change.”
Sarah Dewees, Center for Community Engagement