Strengthening Communities, a Course at a Time

From designing an app to increase pedestrian safety on campus, to launching a campaign to encourage students to show respect and gratitude to Dining Services staff, to partnering with a nonprofit to build beds for children in need, University of Maryland students have spent this academic year working to help create the kinds of communities they would like to live in.

Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum at UMD (CEAC at UMD), a pilot professional development program, supported 12 instructors from seven schools and colleges as they integrated community-focused strategies and experiences into more than 20 courses serving over 1,000 students, in disciplines as varied as art, kinesiology and sociology, during the fall and spring semesters.

“The strength of our democracy and our communities depends on all of us,” said Lena Morreale Scott, principal investigator for the Maryland Democracy Initiative—one of the campus partners leading CEAC at UMD—and a faculty member in the College of Education. “We need to be sure that every student in every major has meaningful learning experiences with the civic knowledge, skills and agency that will prepare them to be community engaged, civically engaged and democratically engaged.”

Added Senior Vice President and Provost Jennifer King Rice: "At the University of Maryland, civic engagement is a responsibility we all have to create the future we want for ourselves, and for generations to come. Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum opens new opportunities for faculty across all disciplines to engage students in this important work." 

The 12 instructors participated in an online training, followed by a two-day seminar last June, where they learned about practices such as intergroup dialogue, service learning and community partnerships. Throughout the year, the cohort met as a group, received one-on-one guidance from coaches and built their own supportive peer community.

CEAC at UMD encourages instructors to reflect on how their specific disciplines can adopt a civic mindset. For Tim Knight, who teaches a four-semester colloquium series as director of the Environment, Technology and Economy (ETE) program in the College Park Scholars living-learning program, an action-based approach is critical to teaching his subject area of sustainability.

“For so long, we have approached environmental education from a fear perspective, trying to scare people into changing behavior. That has not worked—it leads to a feeling that problems are so big that there’s nothing that one person can do,” said Knight. “It’s important to me to help students figure out how to take action themselves and to understand that they do have the power to make an impact.”

For example, in the second semester of their first-year colloquium, ETE students research an environmental issue on or near campus, interview stakeholders and write a proposal to UMD’s Sustainability Fund. This semester, one group is partnering with the UMD Golf Course on a proposal to clean up trash near Campus Creek and plant native plants to attract pollinators.

For Abigail McEwen, associate professor of art history and archaeology and faculty director of the Carillon Communities living-learning program, art can be a vehicle for civic engagement and community connections. “I position art as a social good—as a means to express a community’s values, for example, or to facilitate dialogue and reflection,” she said. “My classes ask students to consider how art works and what art can do and mean in public space.” In her “Art & Activism” course last fall, student teams designed and implemented art installations on campus exploring topics such as food waste, book bans, mental health, masculinity, and disability and accessibility.

Getting more involved in their communities helps students to see connections between concepts they are studying in class and the impact on people’s lives, according to Christine Alexander M.A. ’23, a lecturer in College Park Scholars’ Science, Technology and Society program and the A. James Clark School of Engineering. “I am a strong believer in learning being active and connected to students' lives, interests and curiosities,” she said. “My students all gravitated towards on-campus projects because that’s where their community is.”

For example, Elizabeth Khoury ’27, a microbiology major and Global Public Health Scholar in Alexander’s “Art-Tech Studio” class, was interested in working with students who are struggling to find an interdisciplinary home on campus for their wide range of skills and interests. Khoury and her group chose to collaborate with the UMD Singh Sandbox on an outreach effort to bring more non-STEM majors into the student-run makerspace.

Khoury said that the experience has broadened her perspective. “When I would hear the words ‘civic engagement,’ I would pretty much only think of traditional things like voting and volunteering,” said Khoury. “This course showed me that there are many different ways to be civically engaged with a community.”

CEAC at UMD is delivered by cross-campus partners in Faculty Affairs and Students Affairs including the Maryland Democracy Initiative, Center for Community Engagement, Teaching and Learning Transformation Center, Office of Leadership and Community Service-Learning, and Department of Resident Life, in partnership with the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement (PACE) at Salisbury University. A $19,000 grant from the University System of Maryland and a $2,500 grant from Transform Mid-Atlantic supported the pilot program.

Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum at UMD 2024-25 Cohort:

• Christine Alexander, lecturer, Science, Technology and Society program, College Park Scholars, and A. James Clark School of Engineering
• Rachel Bailey, lecturer, Department of Communication, College of Arts and Humanities
• Carol Boston, community engagement faculty assistant and instructor, College of Information
• Justine DeCamillis, associate director, Justice and Legal Thought program, College Park Scholars, and College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
• Katlin Gray, lecturer and senior program manager, Do Good Institute, School of Public Policy
• Tim Knight, lecturer and director, Environment, Technology and Economy program, College Park Scholars, and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
• Abigail McEwen, associate professor of art history and archaeology and faculty director, Carillon Communities, College of Arts and Humanities
• Amy McLaughlin, sociology lecturer and academic advisor, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
• Ashley Newby, lecturer and director of undergraduate studies, Department of African American and Africana Studies, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
• Emma Powell, lecturer and coordinator of graduate studies, Department of Kinesiology, School of Public Health
• Julie Randolph, associate director of Civic Engagement for Social Good, College Park Scholars, and College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
• Brandi Slaughter, associate clinical professor and program director, Karabelle Pizzigati Fellows Initiative in Advocacy for Children, Youth and Families, School of Public Policy