Community-Engaged Learning for Student Success

Abstract

Community-engaged learning (CEL) with undergraduate students is a high-impact practice (HIP) which can lead to student success in a variety of dimensions, including in the labor force. CEL can enable students to confidently demonstrate the knowledge and skills that they learn in their majors. We describe three different models for incorporating research-based CEL into our work with students. Beyond providing opportunities to gain and apply skills and perspectives, we argue that helping students thoughtfully reflect on the skills and experiences they have from their training and from CEL projects increases their success in college and their readiness for the job market. CEL can be challenging to implement so we provide lessons learned for each of the models we describe.