Center for Community Engaged Learning

Connecting Learners and Practitioners through Community Collaboration

In alliance with the Bethel Frogtown/Summit-University Partnership (PAC), the Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) fosters academic and place-based community collaborations that provide rich educational learning opportunities for Bethel students and neighborhood partners. As part of a community of learners, practitioners, faculty, students, and community wisdom bearers and educators, the CCEL also oversees the management of federally funded community work-study employment initiatives.

Our Vision

Bethel is committed to providing learning opportunities through the Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL). Programs facilitated by the CCEL will:

• Motivate students to explore solutions to systemic and relational problems.
• Encourage student understanding of their distinctive roles and responsibilities in enacting social transformation, spiritual growth, and community well-being as future leaders.
• Promote community engaged learning at Bethel as we seek to learn from, and work alongside, the local and global community.

What We Offer

The Center for Community Engaged Learning offers the following services:

• Provides faculty sample syllabi of courses integrating CCEL theories, methods, and practices.
• Compiles a list of community service agencies as possible CCEL sites.
• Introduces ideas and sample tools for CCEL assessment (reflections, journals, interviews, etc.).
• Lists evidence-based research, academic/non-profit databases, and pedagogical resources that faculty teaching Z-tag courses can access via the CCEL website.
• Maintains Bethel CCEL website and informational links housed in this virtual space.
• Assists students, who may have more than one CCEL experience required, in locating appropriate CCEL partner sites where they can further their community engaged learning experiences, advance their civic-minded relationships, and deepen their vocational connections.
• Introduces faculty to academic and pedagogical development opportunities by spotlighting conferences, forums, and training workshops they can attend.
• Supplies names and locations of current CCEL initiatives undertaken by Bethel and its faculty.
• Promotes CCEL related events held on the Bethel campus and advertises those gatherings organized in the Frogtown-Summit University neighborhoods.