Civic engagement is the core of IUPUI’s identity, infusing our teaching, learning, and research efforts, in addition to our direct work with partners in the Indianapolis community, the state, the nation, and the world. IUPUI continued to garner national accolades for impact in civic engagement this year as one of three institutions to receive the Presidential Award for Community Service in the award’s inaugural year. In addition, the campus was one of 25 across the U.S. named by the New England Board of Higher Education as “Saviors of Our Cities” for strengthening the economy and quality of life in its neighboring community, ranking fourth overall and first among public universities on the list. IUPUI’s service learning programs, which bring students into the community as part of academic coursework, were listed for the fourth consecutive year among “Programs That Really Work” by US News and World Report, and we were among the first group of campuses nationally to receive the “Community Engagement” classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Service learning and other forms of practice-based education have long been a distinctive strength of IUPUI, supporting our retention initiatives and frequently providing new graduates with their first professional career opportunities. An important accomplishment this past year was the expansion of our capacity and infrastructure for service learning and civic engagement. Among our 19 new Signature Centers, the Center for Service and Learning was selected to host IUPUI’s new Service Learning Research Collaborative, with the mission of promoting collaboration on service learning research and scholarship and disseminating findings on good practices in service learning. This initiative promises impact on our own students and community, as well as higher education institutions across the country and the world, as we continue to develop international service learning opportunities with Moi University in Kenya and an expanding roster of other international partners.
