The EPICS Program was created in 1995 with the dual purposes of improving engineering education and addressing compelling needs within our communities. The model broke with many traditional academic traditions, involving students in multidisciplinary teams of students from first-year to fourth years for multiple semesters or even years on projects…

The Policy Practice in Field Initiative was created to seed innovation and develop new models for an integrated approach to enhance the policy skill set of all social work students regardless of specialization. Funds provided to the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) are regranted to schools and programs of social work for field placement and…

The University of South Florida, a public research university, and the University Area Community Development Corporation Inc., a nonprofit organization, collaboratively developed a community-based global learning experience for undergraduate students. We present the results of a study exploring the impact of the experience on students who…

Youths not only participate in Extension services but also can be equipped as facilitators to extend information about a critical topic to new audiences. Our interdisciplinary team of Extension professionals created a program to equip youths as peer educators, increase youths' awareness and understanding of a new topic (local foods), promote…

Valley Park Middle School (VPMS) in Valley Park, MO, has the unique designation of being a not-so-secret gem in St. Louis County. The middle school shares its campus with the elementary and high school, creating opportunities to collaborate and work together to build a school district that not only shines academically, but also focuses on…

Purpose: To examine the enhancement of a university health course through the utilization of the CIPP Model as a means to develop an integrated service-learning component. Methods: The CIPP model was utilized in two concurrent semesters of an undergraduate health course in order to design and evaluate the implementation of a drug and alcohol…

The experiential learning model for students working with community groups was developed for specific experiential learning experiences involving 40 hours of actual experience for high school physical education students working with groups in the community. This article discusses the development and specific segments of the model, as well as how…

The Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program engages students and faculty across Penn State in the rigorous research, design, field-testing, and launch of technology-based social enterprises that address global development challenges. HESE ventures are embedded in a series of five courses that integrate learning,…

This chapter describes how canonical correlation was used in conjunction with an item response theory model to address the relationship between college students' civic engagement involvement and attitudes as undergraduates. The constructs of interest were students' participation in civic, political, and expressive activities, as well as…

Learning about climate change is tangible when it addresses impacts that can be observed close to home. In this program, sixty-four diverse middle and high school students produced videos about locally relevant climate change topics. Graduate and undergraduate students provided mentorship. The program engaged students in research and learning…

Since its inception, Metropolitan State University has demonstrated a strong commitment to community partnerships and the integration of community engagement into student learning and scholarship while meeting community-defined needs. This article presents examples of reciprocal partnerships in the context of a shared community-university library…

This article describes the manner in which an authentic and culturally engaging service-learning model was infused into a multicultural education course for pre-service teachers. Service-learning programs integrated into education courses are often approached from a deficit perspective with pre-service teachers perceiving themselves as the…

Non-formal learning for urban youth has a long history in the United States; it remains a source of innovation. This essay draws on literature about organizations that use community ties to encourage cognitive development and identity formation. It then describes how one youth organization in Camden, New Jersey uses presentations to the community…

School science laboratory classes and hands-on public engagement activities share many common aims and objectives in terms of science learning and literacy. This article describes the development and evaluation of a microbiology public engagement activity, "The Good, the Bad and the Algae", from a school laboratory activity. The school…

In an effort to teach students the basic knowledge of research methods and the realities of conducting research in the context of agencies in the community, faculty developed and implemented a service learning model for teaching research and program evaluation to foundation-year MSW students. A year-long foundation course was designed in which one…