Community-connected learning supports civic knowledge cultivation, skill building, and identity development. In this course students will apply their relevant coursework to place-based contexts by collaborating with community partners independently or in groups to complete a community-connected learning project and/or service opportunity that aspires to contribute to the public good.
We hope that students develop learning in the following areas through a combination of classroom instruction and their community-connected work:
1: Civic Knowledge: Students will develop, express, and apply knowledge of community context, and how communities structure, govern, and sustain themselves as they work toward their goals.
2: Civic Skills: Students will identify, develop, and apply civic skills to effectively and appropriately contribute to communities through partnership and collaboration with community organizations and networks.
3: Civic Identity: Students will deepen their understandings of the values and perspectives that shape and inform their approaches to ethical, authentic community engaged work.
Please use this form to share information about possible projects and/or partnerships that students could support to contribute to the public good and cultivate their civic knowledge, skills, and identity.
Please note: Ideal partnerships/projects will be ready to begin by mid-September and continue through early December; students will be expected to contribute
4-5 hours/week to their project/service work. There will be a final presentation of projects and learning in early December, to which you are invited as a community partner in this course.
We ask that a project supervisor from the partnering organization be available for an initial planning meeting with their partnering student(s) and a faculty member in mid-September, and for brief weekly check-ins with the student(s) for the duration of the semester. We ask that this same person complete brief mid-course and final evaluation forms so we can best support students in their work.
We also ask that someone at the organization be available for up to two (maximum) reflective interviews with their partnering student(s) over the course of
the semester. This does not need to be the same person who is checking in with the student(s) regularly.
This fall, the course will be co-instructed by Samantha Langevin, Network Manager for the Vermont Releaf Collective and Kristie Skor, in the Center for Community Engagement. We recognize that this partnership can involve a significant investment of your time and we are deeply grateful for your commitment to helping our students cultivate their civic knowledge, skills and identity. We commit to supporting the projects as we work toward reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships for all.
Please reach out at any time with questions, concerns or suggestions!
Samantha Langevin, Co-Instructor
samantha@vtreleafcollective.org
405-410-9155
Kristie Skor, Co-Instructor
kskor@middlebury.edu
314-504-3767
Community-Connected Learning
CCELearning@middlebury.edu
Center for Community Engagement
26 Blinn Ln.
Middlebury College
