Northeastern earns national recognition for community engagement

The Carnegie Foun­da­tion for the Advance­ment of Teaching has selected North­eastern to receive the 2015 Com­mu­nity Engage­ment Clas­si­fi­ca­tion, a national recog­ni­tion that high­lights the university’s long­time insti­tu­tional focus on com­mu­nity engagement.

In selecting North­eastern, the Carnegie Foun­da­tion noted that the uni­ver­sity has shown “excel­lent align­ment among campus mis­sion, cul­ture, lead­er­ship, resources, and prac­tices that sup­port dynamic and note­worthy com­mu­nity engagement.”

“North­eastern Uni­ver­sity is engaged with our com­mu­nity and with the world,” said Joseph E. Aoun, pres­i­dent of North­eastern. “This engage­ment is cen­tral to our mis­sion. Our fac­ulty and stu­dents impact com­mu­ni­ties world­wide, and are impacted by them. The enrich­ment is mutual.”

North­eastern is now one of 361 insti­tu­tions holding this elec­tive clas­si­fi­ca­tion, which began in 2006 and is man­aged and admin­is­tered by the New Eng­land Resource Center for Higher Edu­ca­tion. North­eastern will hold the clas­si­fi­ca­tion until 2025, at which time it can seek re-​​classification.

“These are cam­puses that are improving teaching and learning, pro­ducing research that makes a dif­fer­ence in com­mu­ni­ties, and revi­tal­izing their civic and aca­d­emic mis­sions,” John Salt­marsh, director of the New Eng­land Resource Center for Higher Edu­ca­tion, said in a state­ment announcing this year’s clas­si­fi­ca­tion recipients.

The university’s com­mu­nity engage­ment com­mit­ment extends to its finan­cial aid invest­ment, par­tic­u­larly through schol­ar­ships that sup­port local youth, who par­tic­i­pate in com­mu­nity ser­vice as part of their schol­ar­ships. North­eastern last year pro­vided 150 grad­u­ates of Boston Public Schools with full tuition need-​​based schol­ar­ships, in addi­tion to hosting col­lege readi­ness events for BPS stu­dents and their fam­i­lies. Other full tuition pro­grams include the Civic Engage­ment Pro­gram and the inno­v­a­tive Torch Scholars pro­gram, which aims to close the col­lege achieve­ment gap for first-​​generation and low-​​income stu­dents who have over­come excep­tional odds. Finan­cial assis­tance is also pro­vided through other pro­grams such as the Ujima Global Leaders Pro­gram and the Foun­da­tion Year pro­gram, which is designed to increase col­lege access to BPS graduates.

The Office of City and Com­mu­nity Affairs has served as the prin­cipal point of engage­ment with neigh­bor­hood and com­mu­nity groups, serving as a liaison between North­eastern and its more than 250 com­mu­nity part­ners. The office also over­sees the Center of Com­mu­nity Ser­vice, which plays an inte­gral role in stu­dents’ involve­ment in these efforts through pro­grams such as Alter­na­tive Spring Break and orga­nizing ser­vice days and vol­un­teer fairs.

Stu­dents have col­lec­tively per­formed more than 1.2 mil­lion hours of com­mu­nity ser­vice since 2006. These efforts dove­tail with Northeastern’s service-​​learning ini­tia­tives, which inte­grates expe­ri­en­tial learning part­ner­ships between faculty-​​led courses and community-​​based orga­ni­za­tions. Through these part­ner­ships stu­dents engage in many hands-​​on ser­vice projects and oppor­tu­ni­ties. U.S. News and World Report named service-​​learning at North­eastern among the best in the nation for the fourth year in a row.

Com­mu­nity engage­ment is a cen­tral theme across stu­dents’ learning expe­ri­ences both in and out of the class­room, including aca­d­emic pro­grams and majors, research oppor­tu­ni­ties, co-​​ops, study abroad, and senior cap­stone projects. What’s more, last year North­eastern launched its Social Impact Lab, a hub of inno­v­a­tive expe­ri­en­tial cur­ricula, pro­gram­ming, and events designed to empower social change and civic engage­ment across dis­ci­plines and world­wide. The lab’s sig­na­ture pro­gram is “Giving With Pur­pose,” the first-​​ever mas­sive open online course focusing on phil­an­thropy and informed civic engage­ment; the lab also houses North­eastern Students4Giving, an expe­ri­en­tial phil­an­thropy edu­ca­tion program.

In addi­tion to its own stu­dents, North­eastern also leads many youth edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives, such as those through the Center for STEM Edu­ca­tion and theUrban Health Research and Prac­tice, as well as the Col­lege of Science’s National Sci­ence Foundation-​​funded out­reach pro­gram Physics The­o­rynet. These also include the Bal­four Academy at North­eastern, a col­lege readi­ness pro­gram for Boston stu­dents through a summer enrich­ment pro­gram and tutoring throughout the aca­d­emic year; Squash­Busters, a sports-​​based youth enrich­ment pro­gram com­bining ath­letics, aca­d­e­mics, and com­mu­nity ser­vice; and NUTRONS, a North­eastern student-​​led robotics engi­neering team that col­lab­o­rates with and men­tors high school students.

This com­mit­ment also extends to com­mu­nity devel­op­ment. North­eastern part­nered with gov­ern­ment and com­mu­nity groups for the 2012 opening of the new Whit­tier Street Health Center on Tremont Street. Other efforts include trans­forming the Columbus Avenue cor­ridor by helping to secure a $20 mil­lion fed­eral grant in 2014 for upgrades at the Rug­gles MBTA sta­tion. These ren­o­va­tions will be com­pleted in har­mony with the university’s under-​​construction, state-​​of-​​the-​​art Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Sci­ence and Research Com­plex, which is the first pri­vate research devel­op­ment in Boston’s Rox­bury neighborhood.

Northeastern’s research cen­ters also pro­vide exten­sive com­mu­nity ben­e­fits, as fac­ulty and stu­dents con­duct research to iden­tify and imple­ment real solu­tions to soci­etal chal­lenges cur­rently facing urban areas throughout greater Boston.

Looking for­ward, North­eastern is also cre­ating a university-​​wide Center for Com­mu­nity Engage­ment and Neigh­bor­hood Oppor­tu­nity that will coor­di­nate, track, and annu­ally assess all of the university’s com­mu­nity engage­ment efforts. The center will serve as a cen­tral point of con­tact for com­mu­nity mem­bers and partner orga­ni­za­tions to con­nect with Northeastern’s com­mu­nity engage­ment pro­grams, pro­vide des­ig­nated space for the university’s direct ser­vice pro­grams and part­ners to con­vene large com­mu­nity groups, and facil­i­tate com­mu­nity input into engage­ment initiatives.

– By Northeastern News