Thousands of hours of collaboration occur each year between faculty, staff and students at the University of Iowa and community partners across the state. These partnerships result in projects, research, performances, events, and workshops that help build a brighter future for the university and our state.
The impact of community engagement at Iowa can be experienced in the stories below.
Transforming Your Learning Experience
Latham Science Engagement Initiative captures spirit of community engaged courses
The Initiative works with students to ‘engage our community in thinking about how science impacts their daily lives.'
Undergraduate Marketing Institute partners students with local communities
Students work with community partners in Boone Forks, Webster City, Keokuk, Washington, Dubuque, and Sioux City.
Tippie students RISE through experiential learning
Students acquire job-related skills to advance career preparation, expand global view, and build professional network.
College of Nursing students respond to COVID-19 needs in Iowa
College of Nursing helps fill shortage of nurses while students get valuable experience.
Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities guides Yanet's career path
Yanet Velasquez clarified her career path, along with a desire to work in the Hispanic community, in Community Development course.
Megan sees the potential of Iowa with fresh eyes
Megan Schott's perspective shifted and opened her professional pathway to new possibilities when she saw a fresh side of Iowa’s cultural landscape.
Empowering Your Teaching Experience
Exploring Engagement
Exploring Engagement: Faculty Perspective - Interview with Dr. Peter Gerlach
In this episode of Exploring Engagement, we met with Dr. Peter Gerlach to talk about his philosophy and approach to structuring mutually beneficial community engaged courses and the vital work that he is doing with his students to impact community partners serving immigrants and refugees across the state of Iowa.
Community Engaged Course designation (CEC) enhances student experience with increased skills and job readiness
Community engaged coursework (CEC), which brings students out of the classroom and into the community to learn while applying skills in real-time, is found at universities across the country. Beginning Spring 2022, University of Iowa students will view and select courses with a CEC designated component in MyUI.
Professor Colvin brings citizenship to immigrants in West Liberty, Iowa
In the early 1990s, Carolyn Colvin lived in San Diego and taught at San Diego State University. One evening, after a long, traffic-dense drive home, she turned on the NBC Nightly News to see Tom Brokaw standing in the middle of a street in West Liberty.
Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences moves medical research to practices across Iowa
Dr. Heather Reisinger introduces her colleagues to implementation science and studies how researchers rapidly put their findings into practice.
Professor Durham turns service learning into community engagement
After decades of teaching service learning courses, the Engaged Faculty Institute inspires Professor Frank Durham to begin organizing a working group.
Faculty across Iowa join together to advance community engagement
Area colleges and universities gather annually co guide and inform best practices for pedagogical development.
Making a Difference in Your Communities
Jackson County Economic Alliance improves lives and spurs economic growth through community engagement initiatives
The JCEA, which opened over eight years ago, was formed to combine economic development efforts among communities in Jackson County.
School of Journalism supports diversity and inclusion, safety training, and improvement initiatives across Iowa
Rachel Young has taught many community engaged courses, especially in public relations and strategic communications.
Strategic communications writing students help Houses into Homes in Coralville
In the Fall 2021 semester, McCarty worked with a strategic communication writing course to identify ways H2H could tell its story while soliciting volunteers and attracting new sources of fundraising support.
Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates makes a difference in Iowa through student research
Robert Kirby, director of the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU), and his team support around 120 research fellow projects per year.
Communities harness resources and expertise through Business Leadership Network
College of Public Health's Business Leadership Network (BLN) launches new program to connect with small- to mid-sized Iowa communities.
Community engaged research transforms healthcare delivery and provider education
Dr. Craig Syrop, MD, MHCDS, research intersects with medical student Jared Peterson to find links between gestational diabetes and food insecurity.
Turning scholarship into action: Public art residency advances public art in Iowa
Research presented during the Grant Wood Symposium: Art in Public manifests a Public Art Residency for UI students and murals and sculptures across Iowa.
Rigorous and Relevant Community Engagement
The daily news cycle provides no shortage of reminders that higher education is operating in a changing environment, and the pace of change continues to grow.
Equity and the Community Engagement Process
Those of us who are guided by equity and identify our research approach as 'community-engaged scholarship' are struck by the ways that COVID has exacerbated long-existing inequities in classrooms, communities, prisons, and churches.