ACM Grant of $18,280 given for Community Engagement

Monmouth and Knox Colleges recently received a grant, allowing both schools to connect more with the community. The grant from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest works on "Neighbors Supporting Neighbors: Building Institutional Capacity for Community-Based Learning at Knox and Monmouth College." One area this grant directly impacts Monmouth is with the adoption of the new core curriculum which requires students to interact more with the community as a form of a course that focuses on civic engagement (CE).

"With both colleges expanding their civic engagement staff and new faculty members joining the teaching ranks every year, this is an opportune time to heighten awareness of community-engaged learning, reinforce the value of collaboration between student-life staff and academic-affairs personnel, and bring community voices into the conversation," said Monmouth Communication Studies Professor Lori Walters-Kramer.

An example of one CE course is Chris Goble’s “Intro to Journalism” class. Students wrote articles about the issues the city of Monmouth is facing, titled “260 Reports: Small-Town Challenges and Opportunities”. These reports included information about wage issues, housing problems, daycare, and other issues around town.

Ali Vorhies - Features Editor