Elon announces 2023-24 Community-Based Learning faculty development award recipients

The Community-Based Learning Faculty Scholars program strives to help Elon University faculty members learn to utilize the pedagogies of community-based learning and community engagement in their courses.

The Community-Based Learning Research Scholars program supports experienced Elon faculty members in their pursuit of research studies related to some aspect of community-based learning and community engagement.

Community-Based Learning Course Development Grants are designed to support a faculty member for two years who would like to convert a course they currently teach into an approved community-based learning course, one that awards successful students an Experiential Learning Requirement credit. Financial support is provided in year one for the course redesign process and in year two for the faculty member to teach the course and then assess its effectiveness in the new format.

At Elon, community-based learning (CBL) is fundamentally an academic endeavor in which engagement in projects and activities takes place through reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships with the greater community designed to advance the public good. It is an experiential education approach that involves collaborative relationships, guided by the expertise of professors and community-based practitioners, to combine student learning with community needs as an integrated component of a course. The partnerships between Elon and communities engage students with entities such as nonprofit organizations, schools, government agencies or locally owned businesses.

Three Elon faculty members have been selected as Community-Based Learning Scholars for 2023-24. Over the course of this academic year, they will meet regularly to learn more about CBL pedagogy and practices, devise ways to incorporate these practices into their teaching and receive a stipend for their work. They are:

• Dillan Bono-Lunn, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies
• Clare Callahan, Assistant Professor of English
• Tony Reyes, Assistant Professor of Human Service Studies

Two Elon faculty members have been selected as Community-Based Learning Research Scholars for 2023-24. Each will work on an independent research project during the academic year and will receive a stipend for their efforts. They are:

• Jessica Navarro, Assistant Professor of Human Service Studies
• Monica Burney, Lecturer in Human Service Studies

Two faculty members have been awarded CBL Course Development Grants for 2023-25. They will spend the next two years developing, teaching and assessing their CBL courses. Additionally, two faculty members were awarded CBL Course Development Grants for 2022-24. They are now in the teaching and assessment phases of their grants. These grants are supported by the Kernodle Center for Civic Life and funded through a grant from the Frueauff Foundation.

2023-25 Community-Based Learning Course Development Grant recipients:

• Lorraine Ahearn, Assistant Professor of Journalism
• Amanda Laury Kleintop, Assistant Professor of History

2022-24 Community-Based Learning Course Development Grant recipients:

• Kim Shively, Associate Professor of Performing Arts
• Nermin Vehabovic, Assistant Professor of Education

These faculty development programs are mentored by Phillip Motley, professor of communication design and faculty fellow for Community-Based Learning. Applications for the 2024-25 CBL Scholars and CBL Research Scholars programs, as well as for 2024-26 CBL Course Development Grants, will be available next spring.

For more information, please email pmotley@elon.edu.