Community-engaged scholarship: Perspectives from faculty at a master's level institution

Community-Engaged Scholarship (CES) can involve a wide range of activities combining teaching, learning, and research. CES occurs in many disciplines including public health and can be beneficial to faculty, students and the community. Three faculty members at a mid-size university in Virginia studied CES for an academic year through a faculty resource center program. The challenges and opportunities of CES were explored through various techniques, including a faculty survey. One result of the survey was the perceived logistical barriers to engaging in CES. While barriers exist to conducting CES, three examples are illustrated here. The first example of CES involves work with a community coalition that conducts a needs assessment every five years to measure quality of life. Outcomes include: 1) a Federally Qualified Community Health Center, 2) a multi-generational day-care center, 3) a community information center, and 4) a focus on a green environmental infrastructure.  The second example maps potential social media or cloud-based technologies for building learning communities. The mapping can be used as a toolkit or resource for educators to plan and implement CES activities in service learning. The final example is of student participation in the research and design of basic needs infrastructure (e.g. water and sanitation) for developing communities in Kenya. The process and outcomes of CES can be mutually beneficial to those in the community as well as those in higher education. While there are clear barriers to CES, this type of interdisciplinary scholarship can generate new knowledge in various disciplines including public health.