Graduate school is an intense period of identity formation, where scholars-in-training form the attitudes and values that shape their research. The extent to which students assimilate public engagement into their academic formation may depend on the system of beliefs that underpin their particular field of study. In some fields, public engagement…

Drawing on the authors' experiences initiating and directing a community partnership program, this article illustrates how graduate students who lead engagement programs can be caught between forces that pull them toward tactical partnerships unaffiliated with the university and strategic partnerships incorporated into university departments.…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds research proposals on the basis of two review criteria: intellectual merit (IM) and broader impacts (BI). The intellectual merit criterion is well-established and understood, but the broader impacts criterion, which is focused on the ways in which research can benefit society and/or meet NSF-identified…

Increasingly, graduate and professional students arrive at institutions of higher education with personal and professional commitments to make the world a better place through community engagement; however, departments often do not incorporate outreach and engagement into graduate curricula (Austin & McDaniels, 2006; O'Meara & Jaeger,…

This article presents the Psycho-Ecological Systems Model (PESM)--an integrative conceptual model rooted in General Systems Theory (GST). PESM was developed to inform and guide the development, implementation, and evaluation of transdisciplinary (and multilevel) community-engaged scholarship (e.g., a participatory community action research project…

In community-based research (CBR), faculty, students, and community partners collaborate on research projects. This emerging pedagogy presents numerous challenges to instructors teaching CBR courses, including: finding a disciplinary connection, building CBR into the curriculum, ensuring student readiness, and structuring the CBR experience…