A Community Engaged Education!
By Dr. Mark Auslander
Academic Director of Community-Engaged Learning and Assistant Professor of Anthropology

More and more academic classes at Brandeis have an exciting new component--"Community-Engaged Learning."  Students and faculty go out in the local community and do important service projects, partnering with community organizations of all sorts as we help meet community needs and deepen our understanding of social problems in the world around us.  Brandeis students thus earn academic credit as they make important community contributions. 

"Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) initiatives at Brandeis are devoted to expanding the circle of participation in the educational process, drawing students, faculty, staff and community members into conversations about ideas, citizenship, and social responsibility. In our curricular and co-curricular programs we seek to develop sustainable and productive partnerships with organizations and communities beyond the boundaries of campus, in ways that help address pressing social needs and foster democratic participation in civic life. By integrating hands-on practice and thoughtful reflection, CEL projects enhance the university's commitments to social justice, experiential learning, and academic rigor. Through active engagement with local communities, we try to hold up a mirror to ourselves, as we work to build an increasingly inclusive and supportive community here at Brandeis."

One of our major projects recently has been developing a Community Learning Center at Prospect Hill Terrace, the City of Waltham 's largest public housing development. Working closely with the local tenants association, our students are teaching about the environment, computers, youth leadership, world art, and creative writing. There is even a weekly workshop for children and teens on karate! Other classes and students have been partnering with new immigrant families to hold workshops in dance, theater and expressive movement, developing youth groups in local women's shelters, and holding regular clinics on housing rights. 

Brandeis undergraduates playing a leading role in all of these initiatives. Some serve as Community-Engaged Fellows, assisting a specific class as it works on a community project. Other student serve as Community Engaged Representatives in a specific area, such as housing, the environment or immigration issues, building broader bridges between historically under-served communities and the Brandeis community.  In these projects, we find that all learn a great deal from another. As a Brandeis faculty member I have found it enormously rewarding to learn from, and with, my students every day, as we work closely with diverse members of the Waltham community. 

Community Engaged Learning Home

Brandeis Community Engaged Learning in the news