Community Engaged Learning

We learn by doing, and we grow as scholars and as citizens when we pursue curious and compassionate engagement with the world around us. Fordham's two campuses are not set apart from the city in which we reside and the neighborhoods we call home, but rather are integral parts of that city and those communities. Community engaged learning courses give students and faculty the opportunity to deploy the concepts and content introduced in the classroom in the complex and dynamic places and spaces we share.

Fordham's Center for Community Engaged Learning sponsors courses according to an asset-based approach to engagement. We bring the institutional and academic resources of the University together with the leadership, experience, and richness of our communities to enhance student learning, support faculty research, and build on community strengths. Students mobilize abstract concepts they learn in the classroom by engaging in real-world challenges. They enhance memory and retention by teaching new ideas to young people in local schools and centering in reflective practices together with their classes. They immerse themselves in the various cultures of New York's vibrant neighborhoods, and speak the myriad languages native to our city. And, they hone civic leadership and take on pressing matters of policy and equity by partnering with elected officials, community boards, activists, and organizations to work for change.

For more information, and for faculty, student, and community resources, please visit Fordham's Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Community Engaged Learning Courses

In community engaged learning courses, experiences are employed as a learning resource alongside readings, lectures, discussion, or labs. Community engagement is integrated into the syllabus and classroom approach, and is therefore required of all students enrolled in the course. These courses require up to 20 hours of engagement (the instructor may offer more), robust written assignments, and a reflective classroom activity.

Sections of courses that integrate service as a learning resource will be listed in Banner under the attribute code SL, "Community-Engaged Learning." Through this notation, students can identify prior to registration those classes in which engagement hours in the community are required.

Community engaged learning courses include the following: