The Office of Community Engagement supports University of Iowa graduate students through the Graduate Engagement Corps (GEC). The GEC provides graduate students interested in community engagement with training, networking, and funding opportunities to elevate their research and increase their impact in local communities. Publishing, conferences, and professional development workshops further enhance the graduate student experience.
2024 GEC Applications Now Open
The Graduate Engagement Corps (GEC) program provides graduate and professional students with training in critical areas of community engagement, including community-engaged teaching, community-engaged research, and building community partnerships.
A three-day Orientation kicks off the GEC January 8th - 10th, 2024. The Orientation will be in person from 9:00 am-4:00 pm each day. The Orientation is an introduction to the basic principles, methods and tools of community-engaged teaching, research and partnership development. GEC members will also visit community partner sites as part of the Orientation. After completing the GEC orientation, graduate students can participate in additional workshops and trainings to gain a deeper knowledge of specific topics in community engagement through the Spring '24 semester.
Grant funding will be available for GEC participants to apply for in the late Spring of 2024 to encourage the implementation of the skills they have learned through the Orientation and subsequent workshops. To be eligible, participants must complete the Orientation and attend at least two GEC workshops during the 2023-24 academic year.
Why students have joined the GEC
Conor Hilton
Mavis Gyesi
Yuchen Liu
2023 Graduate Engagement Corps (GEC) Members
| Photo | Name | Department | Degree Seeking | What does 'community engagement' mean to you? |
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Abubakar Adam Ibrahim | School of Journalism and Mass Communication | Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication (May 2023) | Community engagement to me means reaching out beyond the bubble of the University of Iowa and making an impact and contributing to the community around the university. |
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Alexis Slade | Civil Environmental Engineering | PhD Civil Environmental Engineering, May 2025 | Community engagement makes me feel that I am providing something back to the community and building a partnership with them that doesn't necessarily end once I collect all my data. |
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Ariane Thomas | Anthropology | Ph.D. in Anthropology, May 2024 | Community engagement is a dynamic process that involves listening and understanding the needs of the community and assisting them with their goals. |
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Christos Sidiropoulos | School of Music | Master of Arts, May 2023 | Community engagement for me is mostly talking to peers outside of my research area. It can be very good to talk to new people because they offer "outsider" perspectives which I simply cannot think of incorporating either to research or teaching. |
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Clara Reynen | School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Iowa Center for the Book | Master of Library and Information Sciences and Certificate in Book Studies, May 2025 | Community engagement means meeting people where they are. Reaching people on the margins is the only way to make a community more tight knit and functional- if we can extend our reach to encapsulate folks who have traditionally been excluded, the community’s values and history can only become more rich and vibrant. |
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Dat Hong | Computer Science | PhD in Computer Science, May 2023 | Do more socializing, understand more people in community around you, understand the community (what is happening and what it needs,...), participate in doing volunteer work, helping people, etc. |
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Ebenezer A.k Aidoo | Communication Studies Department | PhD in Communication Studies | The process of meaningfully engaging and collaborating with community groups to effectively address challenges affecting their wellbeing. |
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Emily V Schmitz | Civil and Environmental Engineering | Doctorate of Civil and Environmental Engineering, May 2024 | Community engagement is a meaningful partnership between me and a community I am a part of to make a positive difference. Fostering this relationship results in a positive step forward, creating effective and impactful change. |
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Harry Mills, Agnes | School of Art and Art History | Master of Art, December 2022, Master of Fine Art, May 2024 | I see community engagement as strands in a woven piece. Each strand is important, yet incomplete on its own. They must work together. One giving room for the other, supporting each other's strengths, and helping the next one's weaknesses. In the end, together they reach a common positive goal. |
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Isaac Addai | Theatre Arts Department | Master of Fine Arts in Acting | Community engagement is essential to maintaining a healthy communal environment. If we only make decisions from the comfort of our offices without continually seeking out problems in the community, we are not doing our jobs to the best of our ability. |
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Jamie Weinfurter | School of Art & Art History | Master of Arts, May 2023 and Master of Fine Arts, May 2024 | Community engagement should connect with those living within the community in order to uplift and share individual and collective experiences in a meaningful way. |
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Jaruam Miguez Xavier | Dance | MFA | It means that we, as students, are a vast community, and sharing is the most important part of getting a degree. Thus, engaging in this community means being open to improving ourselves more and more. |
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Katie Gucik | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences- Theatre Arts | Master of Fine Arts in Acting, May 2024 | To me, community engagement is about connection. It's about having conversations. It's about uplifting and embracing the diversity of a community instead of polarizing different opinions. |
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Kelly Carlson | School of Music - Music Therapy | PhD in Music - Music Therapy, December 2025 | Community engagement means participating in the community to help strengthen the entire community. |
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Laura Carpenter | American Studies | PhD in American Studies, May 2025 | I value the process of building trust and maintaining reciprocity to such a high degree that, for me, community engagement means prioritizing inclusion and agency with partners and empowering them to own the means for reaching their goals. |
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Maeve Biscupski | Graduate College - Sustainable Development | Master of Sustainable Development with Thesis, May 2024 | Responsibly and inclusively synthesizing a community's need for a specific project or goal. |
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Maria Marroquin Perez | Spanish and Portuguese | PhD in Spanish, May 2024 | I don’t consider community engagement to be solving problems for a community, but rather giving members of the community support to overcome obstacles. Community engagement is using the skills we have in collaboration with others to provide assistance in the growth of our communities. |
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Mark Flores | Health and Human Physiology | PhD May 2027 | To me, community engagement means both impacting and allowing yourself to be informed and impacted by a community. |
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Monté J. Howell | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Theatre | Master of Fine Arts, May 2024 | Community engagement means reaching out to build community. My mission is to go out into the community and spread community through theatre, so they know they have a place where they can be seen and appreciated. |
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Naomi Davis | School of Music | Master of Arts in Music Therapy, Spring 2024 | Community engagement can mean a lot of different things. For me, it primarily centers around offering programming and resources that are relevant and meaningful to the individual communities that they are offered in. It's about becoming part of the community not just being in the community. |
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Onyeche Oche | College of Pharmacy, Division of Health Services Research | PhD, December 2023 | My definition of community engagement is the process of collaborating with members of a community in a way that gives them the freedom to express their needs, pain points, and challenges, and working with them to find solutions to any identified problems. |
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Osamamen Oba Eduviere | Religious Studies Department | PhD, Religious Studies, 2026 | Community engagement is the collaboration of the researcher with the interlocutors in the field to contribute positively towards knowledge production. |
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Sermantha Louisy | College of Education: Teaching and Learning | PhD in LCLE--Literacy Education (Children and Young Adult Literacy) | Community Engagement is working collaboratively with and through groups of people who may be experiencing similar challenges, to help address these situations/challenges for and with them. |
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Sophia McLaughlin | Dance | Master of Fine Art, May 202 | Community engagement means listening to the needs of the community and activating a project or event to build connection with others in the community. Community engagement can take many forms but ultimately brings community members together through a shared experience. |
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Sun Joo Lee | Music Therapy | PhD in Music Therapy, December 2024 | Community engagement invites everyone to share their voice when organizing their group to work toward the same goals. It encourages active participants' involvement to manage, interact, and communicate, which leads to achieve long-term and sustainable goals. |
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Uchechi Anomnachi | American Studies Department | PhD in American Studies, May 2024 | Community engagement to me is an act of translation. The academy, across the disciplines, is a storehouse of knowledge that is trapped in language that we cannot reasonably expect everyone to know. Community engagement is a way of making that knowledge accessible. |
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Ugochukwu Madu | School of Journalism and Mass Communication | PhD in Mass Communication, May 2027 | I view "community engagement" as working with a specific group of people, to identify their needs and problems, and collaborate with them toward proffering solution to those. |
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Yajaira Bolanos Flores | College of Public Health, Community Behavioral Health | Master of Public Health, May 2023 | Community engagement includes community outreach to raise awareness of a particular issue, stakeholder involvement to share research and exchange ideas, advocacy and policy change to work with policymakers, training to build capacity, and feedback from community members to share perspectives about the research. |
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Zachery Love | Geographic and Sustainability Science | M.A. (With Thesis) in Geography, May 2024 |
Community engagement are actions taken to build social understanding, bridge gaps in knowledge, and connect actors and stakeholders. |
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Nicole Yeager | Counseling Psychology | PhD |
Graduate student finds her target research population, grant support, community partnerships, and more in Graduate Engagement Corps
Originally from China, Yuchen Liu, a Ph.D. candidate in Foreign Language and ESL Education, came to the University of Iowa after receiving an offer to join the Ph.D. program in 2016 after spending two years in Kentucky pursuing a master's degree.
Now in the sixth year of her program, Liu is in All But Dissertation (ABD) status after completing all doctoral degree requirements except for writing a dissertation.
In 2021, Liu joined the Graduate Engagement Corps (GEC), which introduced her to the concept of community engagement.
"I had never done anything like it," Liu said. "I had engaged with local communities as a volunteer at locations like the food bank, crisis center, and some other nonprofit organizations around Iowa City, but that was all I knew."
The GEC was launched by the Office of Community Engagement to connect University of Iowa graduate students with training and partnerships to advance their research in collaboration with Iowa communities.
"I gained a lot by joining the GEC, including how to find resources and support for my research," Liu said. "I recommend it to graduate students looking for a welcoming and open-minded program that helps connect research with communities through engagement."
Graduate Engagement Corps connects grad students to funding, community partnerships, and professional development
The Graduate Engagement Corps (GEC) is an opportunity for students seeking advanced degrees to learn about and receive support for community-engaged teaching, learning, and research. Members of the GEC are also be part of a network of like-minded, community-engaged students that can provide friendship and connection throughout their time at the University of Iowa.
"This is a community of students looking for the opportunity to make an impact in the world through research and teaching," said Nick Benson, executive director of the Office of Community Engagement." The GEC will give you training, resources, and a community to join to advance those causes."
The GEC was born out of the sunset of the Obermann Center's Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy. Benson and Obermann Center leadership worked over the summer to transition the program and make it more accessible and practical for participants.
The GEC offers graduate and professional students training, support, and financial resources to help impact their communities through engagement. The orientation and workshops will provide the training, the GEC network will provide support, and grants launching spring of 2023 will provide the financial resources through grants for which GEC members can apply.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you have a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to participate in this program, don't hesitate to contact Nick Benson at 319-384-3464 or nicholas-benson@uiowa.edu.
