There are several ways to get involved as a student at the Center for Community Engagement. Winter workshops that last three weeks are a great way to get introduced to the community. Our summer programs are a bit longer at six weeks, and provide a focused experience. The semester-long Residency Program in the fall semester is a full-time, study away experience that provides a deep immersion. Our partners in the Urban Cohort offer a curricular path that might inform your entire undergraduate experience. More details below:
The Residency Program
Each fall since 2006 the Center has hosted undergraduate and graduate students from all majors in this immersive, interdisciplinary program. Students live in urban Cincinnati, take an array of courses at the Center, participate in experiential learning through placements in the community, and become familiar with policies and conditions that shape urban centers through direct contact with neighbors, who share their lived experiences. These are experiences that cannot be recreated on campus. The focus is not just research and coursework in an unfamiliar context. Great emphasis is placed upon connecting with community, and self-assessment through journaling, writing, and reflection. This we call the “school of social life”.
Student teachers with urban school assignments join the program and find that it’s curriculum and their classroom work. Design students work on community-based projects in the design-build studio, linking with community initiatives that include affordable housing production and preservation, equitable development, and consideration of policies that promote a just society. Students are also placed with community-based organizations based upon their expertise and experience, for instance, journalism students have worked with the Streetvibes newspaper, pre-med students at the Crossroads Health Center, marketing students have done branding for local non-profits, and social justice studies majors have worked at the Cincinnati Interfaith Workers’ Center.
Contact John Blake to see how this opportunity might work with your curricular path.
Summer Workshops
We have a 6-week summer studio offerings—a design build workshop for architecture and interior design students. These are often demonstrations of design-thought in action, and seek to building the community’s capacity with renovated housing, offices, and exterior spaces or installations.
We frequently host the Cincinnati Summer Immersion Program (CSIP) from Miami University Education, Health, and Society, which links experiential learning opportunities to students from varied majors, encouraging exchanges of expertise and stories.
Winter Workshops
The Center for Community Engagement is open year-round. We’ve hosted several courses and workshops over Miami’s Winter Term. These three-week immersive sessions can be an ideal introduction to the urban context, and might lead to a summer excursion or our semester-long the Residency Program.
Consult with Miami University Global Initiatives for study away opportunities during the Winter Term.
Urban Cohort
We work closely with Miami University’s Urban Cohort from the College of Education, Health and Society (EHS). The Urban Cohort provides a three-year path for students with opportunities for weekend immersions and collaborative opportunities with community leaders. For many Urban Cohort students, including student teachers, this path culminates with the Residency Program, a full-semester immersive, interdisciplinary semester where students are supported and mentored by community members.
