We posit that graduate student recruitment is a form of community engagement where universities invite community members to apply. We conducted a study about the recruitment experience with 29 newly matriculated graduate students of color. Many students reported that welcoming interactions as well as research and courses on diversity or racial…

This study explores how a team of university and youth co-researchers collaboratively inquired into, and participated in, the process of writing for educational change. We refer to the collective literate processes through which researchers worked to center community priorities in academic writing as community-centered composing. We document how…

A critical turn in heritage studies that integrates nonexpert (including colonial) voices presents significant didactic and educational challenges. How do we teach heritage practices in an intercultural, and previously colonial, context? The project Making Bonairean Heritage Together was designed as a showcase to equip students with essential…

Since 2009, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute at the University of Guelph has operated a science shop (the Research Shop) where it carries out high-impact community-engaged scholarship by training and employing graduate students to conduct community-engaged research as a cocurricular activity. This study investigates the first 9 years of…

Providing students with opportunities to wrestle with and engage with messy, real-world problems can be challenging in traditional, higher education courses. However, for students in helping and applied professions, engaging with challenging problems in a supportive environment is critical to developing their skills and confidence. This paper…

In this article, I reflect on my lived experiences as a disabled graduate student navigating spaces of community literacy. This essay utilizes storytelling as an entry point for understanding the barriers graduate students oftentimes face while accessing community literacy projects. Extending Ada Hubrig's theorization of "disability justice…

This collaborative autoethnographic research study examines the motivations, experiences, and professional outcomes of seven community engagement practitioner-scholars who served in a high-level elected position in a community engagement research association and its affiliated graduate student network. The findings highlight the role of…

For instructors engaged in teaching evaluation, bridging the gap between the content of formal educational experiences and what we want future evaluators to be able to do in practice remains a challenge. Studying the format and quality of university courses focused on program evaluation is one mechanism through which we might begin to narrow this…

In this reflection, using the work of Ellen Cushman and Paula Mathieu as a framework from which to extend, I explore how my positionality as a graduate student affected my experience wading into community-engaged literacy work. Specifically, I reflect on my time with a nonprofit organization that provides no-cost legal support and safety planning…

ENG 712: Theories in Public Rhetoric & Community Engagement is a required course for MA and PhD students concentrating in Rhetoric, Writing, and Community Engagement at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). The topic for this course rotates depending upon the teaching faculty member's area of expertise. In the 2020 rotation, Maria opted…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand student experiences of authentically assessed community partnership projects and reflect on authentic assessment from a social and environmental sustainability perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The authors present an elaborated case study including graduate-level courses at a university…

Mental health issues are pervasive--one in five US adults experience mental illness each year. Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Despite the widespread rates of mental illness and their devastating effects, there are still significant barriers that impact access to care, particularly for members of historically marginalized…

Experiential philanthropy, or student philanthropy, is a type of service learning that helps students actively learn about community needs and non-profit organizations. This "learning by giving" approach has the potential to enhance various social work competencies identified by social work scholars and associations, such as the Council…

This dissertation was a basic, exploratory qualitative study which examined professional identity development of community-engaged practitioner-scholars through participation in a community engagement professional associations' graduate student fellowship--the Imagining America (IA) Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) Fellows program. Data…

Productive tensions with traditional academic practices develop within a graduate certificate program in community engagement at Tulane University. The program offers an alternative approach to traditional graduate education practices by fostering community, epistemic justice, and care for the whole person through sustained interdisciplinary and…