Center for Leadership & Community Engagement promotes academic study, leadership education, and community based learning
Hot topic on Leadership provided by Heather Hare, Associate Director,
Center for Leadership & Community Engagement
Image courtesy of CLCE
The Center for Leadership & Community Engagement (CLCE) promotes positive change and civic responsibility by combining academic study, leadership education and community based learning. In the 2006-2007 academic year, CLCE supported leadership courses, workshops and training for 250 students, organized 1,740 community service hours with 50 community organizations, initiated fundraising programs resulting in $10,000 for local charities, and coordinated gifts and food donations worth $3,050 for low-income Fairfax families and community organizations.
CLCE partners with faculty, students and the community to develop experiential learning opportunities and promotes curricular and co-curricular volunteer initiatives. CLCE coordinates courses in Leadership Studies that prepare students for leadership in their communities, professional, and personal lives. Interdisciplinary classes examine leadership from multiple perspectives and disciplines, offering an understanding of leadership in a global society with an emphasis on civic engagement. CLCE bridges the relationship between academic study and community involvement through the following programs and initiatives:
- Service– Learning integrates academic study with community service experiences that address human and community needs and enhance student learning. CLCE consults with faculty on course design, organizes community partnerships, and provides administrative support for service-learning courses.
- Community Based Action Research offers students an opportunity to apply the knowledge and analytic tools gained in the classroom to the pressing issues that affect local communities. Working with faculty members and community leaders, students develop research projects, collect and analyze data, and share their results and conclusions with the organizations and agencies that need the information, as well as with their professors.
- Alternative Breaks offer students an introduction to community issues through travel and service. Students perform short-term projects and study with community agencies, domestically and internationally, focusing on such issues as HIV/AIDS, Native American Culture, Poverty, Conservation and Environment, Responses to Violence, Homelessness and Youth Development. Academic credit is optional.
- A Minor in Leadership Studies is open to students in all academic programs, schools and majors. Students may also choose to major in Integrative Studies in New Century College and concentrate in Leadership Studies with an emphasis on one of the following areas: Administration, Nonprofit Management, Government/Politics, Communication, and Events Planning.
The Center for Leadership and Community Engagement is sponsored by New Century College and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and is located in 442 Enterprise Hall.
For more information, phone 703-993-2900.
On the web: http://clce.gmu.edu