Community engaged work comes in all shapes and sizes in metropolitan universities. This is an asset to be celebrated but is sometimes hard to describe, especially as parts of a larger coordinated approach to community engagement. For example, as stewards of place, metropolitan universities are responsible for helping students become civically-minded graduates while also engaging with other anchor institutions in their communities to address issues of community and economic development. Community anchor work also pushes institutions to examine and change their business practices in ways that benefit the larger community. Rather than see these forms of community engagement as disparate activities, we’ll explore a framework that connects them as contributing elements to a singular community engagement narrative.
Join CUMU’s 2024 Holland Scholar to discuss a framework for organizing, institutionalizing and implementing community engagement in institutions of higher education and their surrounding communities. Participants will gain an understanding of the multi-level framework, explore a case study of its application at a metropolitan university in Ogden, Utah, and consider the benefits of employing the framework in their own work.
OPEN TO ALL: REGISTER HERE
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Brenda Marsteller Kowalewski is a sociologist and vice provost for High Impact Educational Experiences, Faculty Excellence, International and Graduate Programs at Weber State University. She believes that institutions of higher education must be places where partnerships in the community are cultivated, celebrated and seen as critical for fulfilling student success goals and our responsibility to be good stewards of place. To that end, Kowalewski co-created with campus and community colleagues the Center for Community Engaged Learning (2006), the Ogden Civic Action Network (2016), the Office of Community Development (2018), and conducted the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement self-study process (2008, 2015, 2025) to further institutionalize community engagement on and off campus. Kowalewski was recently named the 2024 recipient of the Barbara Holland Scholar-Administrator Award. .