Opportunities for service learning and community engagement |
Meaningful learning opportunities engage our students in identifying and addressing issues of public concern.
Students deepen their understanding of their studies and reflect on the connections between their learning and their communities.
While meeting community needs, students acquire skills, knowledge, confidence, and experience.
Engaged in service to the community: news and activities |
Adding value to the lives of others: alternative spring break 2013
- Nine junior and senior nursing students traveled to Blanchard in Haiti for their community health nursing course. Leading the team of students was recently retired faculty member Dr. Jeanne Leffers. The students provided nursing care and health services to adults and children in Blanchard. This life-changing initiative was conceived by a former nursing student, nurtured by Dr. Leffers, and also supported by nursing alumna Rear Admiral (ret.) and former Assistant Surgeon General Julia Plotnick. more
- Nine students from UMass Law headed to the Dominican Republic to work on immigration issues at the Haitian border. And four members of our Enactus team of students and faculty from the Charlton College of Business traveled to Guatemala to deliver a two-day workshop on “Sustainable Community Development through Entrepreneurship” and to provide basic health education.
- Many of our students spent their "alternative spring break" closer to home as part of the In Our Own Back Yard service activities organized by the Leduc Center for Civic Engagement. Their activities included: confronting hunger and homelessness in the region, preparing nature trails, cleaning up shorelines, and connecting with the native and immigrant populations. more
Fifth Annual Civic Engagement Summit: April 25
This annual event is designed to strengthen the social fabric of our community, region, and Commonwealth through thought-provoking dialogues about how to improve the quality of life in our communities.
The 2013 keynote speaker is Ira Harkavy, Ph.D., founding director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships and associate vice president of the University of Pennsylvania.
President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll
UMass Dartmouth has again been named one of the nation's elite universities—and the only one in Massachusetts—for its support of volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement by the Corporation for National and Community Service and the US Department of Education. The university was honored as one of 14 Presidential Award Finalists, out of 690 educational institutions on the 2013 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
Ranked 25th nationally in contribution to the public good
UMass Dartmouth was ranked 25th in the nation among master’s universities by Washington Monthly. The magazine rates schools based on their "contribution to the public good" in three categories: social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students); research (producing scholarship and PhDs); service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).
Building bridges between learning and community
The Leduc Center for Civic Engagement is the mechanism through which UMass Dartmouth meets the dual challenges of community need and active student learning. The integration of learning and service is a powerful tool for enhancing student experience, increasing student engagement, and creating a more just society.
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