Community Engagement
Community Engagement courses help students learn about the course topic as well as their own personal and professional identities through immersion in a project that serves a community.
Community Engagement Projects
INTG 488-01: Vocation and the Common Good Project
In the fall 2022 semester, students served several area community agencies while enrolled in “Vocation and the Common Good.” Agencies served included:
- Warren County Library, where Isa Perez and Addison Cox created eye-catching bulletin boards to celebrate reading, shelved books, and planned and delivered a reading event for children;
- Recharge Teen Center in Monmouth, where Elijah Lind tutored students in multiple subjects and engaged with teens in conversations and activities;
- and Illinois Special Olympics Region F, where Brady Nelson served in numerous ways, including helping set up for events and guiding athletes in bowling tournaments.
Reflecting on her time at the Warren County Library, Addison wrote:
“Throughout my time at the library, I was able to connect more deeply with and provide services to my community, find self-fulfillment in new definitions of success, and reconnect my authentic self through both creative expression and a reinvigorated love of books”
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Adde Cox, left, and Isa Perez read to children at the Warren County Library. -
Brady Nelson helping out at the Special Olympics -
Elijah Lind helping out at the Recharge Teen Center in Monmouth
COMM 260: Introduction to Journalism Project
Students in “Introduction to Journalism” learned about the important role the journalist plays in a community. Local issues students covered included the availability of affordable housing, scarcity of daycare and access to healthcare. They interviewed stakeholders, and gathered information for published articles. Read their stories here.
INTG 488 – 02: Social Issues and Community Project
Students in fall 2022 completed needs assessments for Monmouth College,
POLS-210-01: Public Opinion Project
Students in Prof. Andre Audette’s Public Opinion course immersed themselves in 2 projects in spring 2023. One project involved working with the Warren County Public Library to administer a community survey. After learning about what the Director hoped to learn from the survey responses, the students developed sample surveys on different platforms that the library could use. They then helped to market the survey to the campus community (through creating a QR code, sending it out via email, and distributing posters). The library continues to gather information through the surveys. Another research project involved conducting a nationwide survey on the topic of intra-party polarization, with responses from 845 individuals in 48 states. Students’ analysis of the results were presented in research papers with the opportunity to continue to work on the project for potential publication.
Learn more about this project,
POLS-305-01: Politics & Government in the Midwest Project
In Spring 2023, Prof. Robin Johnson’s Politics and Government in the Midwest class collaborated with John Austin/Chicago Council on Global Affairs to examine 2022 gubernatorial election results in Midwest Obama-Trump counties.