“Working alongside neighbors and solving community problems together really made me understand why I was in college," said Jessica Baty-McMillan, assistant director for service learning with VT Engage. "With community-based and service learning, we give students those same transformative experiences."

The VT Engage Faculty Fellows program is now open for new applicants to integrate high-impact, ethical, community-based learning experiences in their academic courses and programs. Current fellows say their students’ attitudes and attention reflect the purposeful learning that the fellowships support.

Learning with purpose

“Students really concentrate in class and engage with the community and each other” said Fellow Eunju Hwang, associate professor of apparel, housing, and resource management in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, “because they’re learning to discover what the community partners need and building projects based on those priorities.” 

Hwang’s Universal Design students are working with community partners, including Local Office on Aging and (Older) Kids Can Write to identify barriers to mobility, food security, mental health, and other areas of well-being and develop strategies to overcome those barriers.  

Aparna Shah, collegiate assistant professor of neuroscience in the College of Science, said the peer support within the Fellowship has enabled her to envision how her Neuroscience of Drug Addiction students could reach more community partners.

“Last summer, I had probably one or two ideas for partnerships,” she said, while her students’ current service projects show how her vision for community partnerships has grown during her first community-based teaching experience:

  • Expanding campus opioid overdose preparedness with Hokie Wellness 
  • Demonstrating to regional fifth graders through the Center for Educational Networking and Impacts’ Hokie for a Day expo how MRI and EEG can be used to study neurological impacts of substance use
  • Training peer educators for the Just Say Know harm reduction program through collaboration with Sam Margherio, assistant professor of psychology
  • Supporting individuals in recovery through Recovery Ally training
  • Inviting students outside neuroscience to explore through book club discussions a neuroscientist's personal insights into addiction
  • Creating educational science comics about addiction, with the guidance of science comic author and graphic novelist Jay Hosler
  • Presenting evidence about the neuroscience of addiction to Students for Sensible Drug Policy

A community of practice multiplies learning opportunities

Though she has applied community-engaged teaching for over a decade, Rachael Budowle, collegiate assistant professor in the Honors College, said her fellowship helps her “reinvigorate and reimagine the Honors Service Learning course as a sustainability living laboratory, working with partners on campus and in the wider community as direct mentors for students.”

Multiple projects by Budowle’s students amplify the impacts of the Climate Action Living Laboratory. The lab brings together students and faculty with operational and administrative staff to meet the Virginia Tech Climate Action Commitment. 

“Faculty aren't always prepared to engage with community partners in a way that fully values their time and expertise to mentor our students,” she said. “The peer learning aspect of VT Engage helps faculty develop equitable partnerships that return valuable products and information to the community.” 

Budowle said, “The Fellowships support and incentivize faculty to accept the risk of these valuable but more time-intensive learning experiences, and they show the impacts that longer-term supports could create.”

As part of the Virginia Tech Advantage commitment to provide transformational learning experiences, community-engaged projects through VT Engage drive student experiences in dynamic environments to solve complex problems.

Charlotte Cullen, a senior in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, said Budowle’s class was “a unique opportunity for me and my fellow students to develop our academic and professional skills while also taking part in significant projects with impacts beyond our classroom.” 

New grants seed and sustain community-engaged projects

In addition to course development grants that VT Engage offers to develop and implement community-engaged courses, new grants are now available to sustain established courses or programs or conceive new ones at a slower pace:

  • The Research and Assessment Grant will support graduate assistants to assess student learning and community outcomes. VT Engage also offers professional development in research methods and assessment skills as part of this grant.

  • The Peer Mentor Grant will fund an undergraduate or graduate assistantship to coordinate programming among community partners or provide other support functions.  

  • The Seed Grant will help faculty design a community-based learning program at a slower pace than the development grant since full implementation is not required.

Interested faculty can find details about the application process at the VT Engage Faculty Fellows site. There will be a virtual grant information session on Friday, March 8, from 10–11 a.m. Grant applications are due by 5 p.m. on March 24.

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