CT State Middlesex has always embraced community-engaged learning, and the Center for Civic Engagement helps us organize and promote these efforts. The Center, located in Snow Hall, room 520 on the Middletown campus, is an exceptional resource for faculty and staff to incorporate the community into their curriculum and projects, for students to research independent projects, and for the community to connect with the campus to address needs.
Our greater community holds countless learning opportunities for every student – and helps build civic bonds. By connecting with local, national, and global organizations and partners, we are able to identify many new and unique learning environments (outside of the classroom) where students can complete projects and fulfill course and program objectives. This form of applied learning expands students’ experiences, builds connections between students and the community, and helps organizations meet real needs.
Civic engagement gives students a competitive edge when entering the workforce, and has been cited as a major reason people succeed in school and in life.
Students
Ask your professor how you can include community-engaged learning and civic engagement in your studies.
Faculty
We offer support and resources to faculty and staff, and help train faculty on how to include community-engaged learning and assessment into their curriculum. In addition, the Center provides “tool kits” and references to encourage a greater level of civic engagement.
Developing Students' Civic Responsibility
The Center for Civic Engagement works across all disciplines at CT State Middlesex from marketing to business administration, environmental science to computer technology, human services to healthcare – and everything in between.
Additionally, the Center for Civic Engagement supports (and/or sponsors) all civic-focused activities on campus such as:
- Voter registration drives
- The week-long “Connecticut Makes a Difference” volunteer effort
- Opportunities for campus forums on critical social justice issues
- Campus speakers and events
- The monthly “Courageous Conversations” events which are opportunities for the college community to gather and discuss pertinent issues of the day
Mission Statement
The Center for Civic Engagement supports the mission of CT State Community College as a force for positive social change. By expanding opportunities for community-based learning and the exchange of ideas on critical social justice issues, the Center strengthens mutually beneficial relationships between faculty, staff, students and partners in our local, national and global communities. Guided by democratic principles, the Center for Civic Engagement encourages everyone to be active citizens and to work together for the common good.
Contact
ASHLEY RAITHEL
Associate Professor, English
Phone: 860-343-5801
Email: araithel@mxcc.commnet.edu
Office Location: Snow Hall 520
CT State is a member of the Connecticut Campus Compact.
Resources For Faculty
Community-engaged learning (also referred to as service learning) is a way to bring active learning out of the classroom and into the world while also meeting learning outcomes for one’s class and benefitting the community in a unique way. This pedagogy lends itself to many different disciplines. Students work on projects in the community that relate to the course objectives. The assignments are specifically based on community needs in communication with a community partner. Students generally have an experience they could not have had in the traditional classroom. At the end of the project, students are asked to reflect on their experience.
In Where’s the Learning in Service-Learning? authors Janet Eyler and Dwight Giles, Jr, describe service-learning as “a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection as students work with others through a process of applying what they are learning to community problems, and at the same time, reflecting upon their experience as they seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding for themselves.”
Various studies have found that community-engaged learning helps students:
- Obtain skills prized by employers
- Develop habits of social responsibility and civic participation
- Persist in college and complete their degree
- Apply critical thinking and analytic reasoning
- Become sensitive to issues of cultural diversity
(National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement)
See the following subject-based ideas and resources for adding community-engaged learning to your class.
Accounting
Anthropology
Art
Biology
Business
Chemistry
Communications
- “Voices of a Strong Democracy: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Communication Studies”
- “Service Learning in Communication Studies”
- “Best Practices in Service Learning in Journalism and Mass Communication Teaching”
- “Cultivating the media activist: How critical service learning can reform journalism education”
Computer Science
Criminal Justice
Early Childhood Education
Economics
Engineering
English
Environmental Science
Foreign Language
Geography
Health Information Management
History
Human Services
- “Human Services and Service Learning: Dissimilar but Complementary Value Domains”
- “Service Learning: A Useful Pedagogy to Engagement Community Health Education Students in Resource Management and Grant Writing”
- “Students as Practitioners in a Service Learning Context”
- “Building Reflection Skills Through a Service-Learning Project in Human Services”
Manufacturing
Mathematics
Media
Ophthalmic Design & Dispensing
Philosophy
Physics
Resources:
- “Service Learning in Physics: The Consultant Model”
- “Service Learning in Introductory Astronomy and Physics”
- “SLOPE: An Effort towards Infusing Service Learning into Physics and Engineering Education” by Abhijit Nagchaudhuri, Ali Eydgahi, and Asif Shakur
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology
- “Cultivating the Sociological Imagination: Concepts and Models for Service-Learning in Sociology”
- “Studying Sociology Through Service Learning”
- “Service-Learning and the Sociological Imagination: Approach and Assessment”
- “Experiential Learning in Sociology: Service Learning and Other Community Based Learning Initiatives”