Undergraduate Leadership Development: Leveraging the student experience to strengthen Community Engaged Learning

TitleUndergraduate Leadership Development: Leveraging the student experience to strengthen Community Engaged Learning
Faculty/College/UnitArts
StatusCompleted
Duration2 Year
Initiation04/01/2019
Completion03/31/2021
Funding Details
Year 1: Project TitleExpanding Community Engaged Learning Opportunities Across First Year Cohort-Based Programs
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2019/2020
Year 1: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorKerry Greer
Year 1: Funded Amount22,653
Year 1: Team Members

Kerry Greer, Instructor, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Claudia Ruitenberg, Academic Director, Vantage College
Susan Grossman, Director, Centre for Community Engaged Learning
Katherine Lyon, Instructor, Vantage College / Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Laurie McNeill, Chair, Arts First-Year Programs and Arts Studies in Research and Writing
Tom Kemple, Chair, Arts One and CAP, Faculty of Arts
Evan Mauro, Sessional Instructor, Law and Society CAP Stream
Simon Lolliot, Instructor, Vantage College / Psychology, Faculty of Arts
Daniel Riccardi, Lecturer, Academic English Program, Vantage College
Jennifer Lightfoot, Lecturer, Academic English Program, Vantage College
Christine D’Onofrio, Instructor, Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Faculty of Arts
Kelsea Perry, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Sociology, Faculty of Arts

Year 1: Summary

Community engaged learning (CEL) is a high-impact learning activity that deepens student learning and improves mastery of course material. For students in first year cohort programs, specifically the Coordinated Arts Program (CAP) and Vantage College (VC) , CEL offers students the opportunity to have a shared, common experience, something that is difficult to otherwise achieve with the diverse student body enrolled in both programs. CEL also provides a context for students to gain professional experience while developing their understanding of the broader Vancouver community that they are now a part of. However, faculty knowledge of and confidence in developing CEL opportunities for students is limited in both programs. This project builds faculty capacity by establishing CEL Faculty Fellows and sustainable resource support by providing specially trained CEL TA Fellows who, combined with CEL Mentors, will support new practitioners of CEL in exploring this innovative pedagogical method across both the CAP and VC.

Year 2: Project YearYear 2
Year 2: Funding Year2020/2021
Year 2: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 2: Principal InvestigatorKerry Greer
Year 2: Funded Amount27,090
Year 2: Team Members

Kerry Greer, Senior Instructor, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Susan Grossman, Director, Centre for Community Engaged Learning
Chris Lee, Associate Professor, English Language and Literatures / Director, Asian Canadian Asian Migration Minor, Faculty of Arts
Henry Yu, Associate Professor, History, Faculty of Arts / Principal, St. John’s College
Renisa Mawani, Associate Professor, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Richard Arias Hernandez, Instructor, School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies
Christine D’Onofrio, Senior Instructor, Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Faculty of Arts
Daniel Riccardi, Lecturer, Academic English Program, Vantage College
Katherine Lyon, Instructor, Vantage College and Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Evan Mauro, Arts First-Year and Interdisciplinary Programs, Faculty of Arts
Jennifer Lightfoot, Lecturer, Academic English Program, Vantage College
Thomas Kemple, Professor, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Althea Thauberger, Assistant Professor, Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Faculty of Arts
Madeleine Zammar, Community Engaged Learning Officer, Centre for Community Engaged Learning

Year 2: Summary

Community engaged learning (CEL) is a deeply transformative pedagogical strategy incorporating multiple stakeholders into the learning process. From the faculty perspective, it requires managing a group of students who often have very individualized learning experiences as they engage with community partners at multiple sites. For students, community engaged learning is transformative, but stressful – they have to learn to navigate learning outside of the context of the classroom, and develop skills for working with a much more diverse set of actors than they are accustomed. This project leverages the student experience and builds on it by hiring undergraduates who have experience with CEL as student-leads to support faculty, fellow students and community partners. Undergraduates will be trained by the Centre for Community Engaged Learning, building on a model developed to train graduate TAs in a similar role, and will then be matched with faculty to support ongoing community engaged learning projects.