The Impact of Community Connections
By Luke Wink-Moran
Photo Credit: ©alfa27 - stock.adobe.com
Community engagement offers graduate students a chance to spark new connections and ideas though service-learning. It is also a great way to build a diverse network of professional contacts, make friends, and engage in applied research.
Local, national, and global outreach is at the core of our institution’s land-grant mission. The university’s inclusive view of scholarship values the integration of evidence-based outreach in collaborations with community partners. What better way to invigorate and ground your research than by engaging with the communities that your work is meant to support?
If you are interested in becoming a more active member of communities in or beyond the University of Arizona, some of the programs and resources described below might help you find the best fit for you.
A hub of Tucson’s service programs, the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona offers a rich variety of outreach opportunities. United Way mobilizes people throughout the region to create positive, long-lasting change in our communities. Be sure to check out the upcoming United Way’s Days of Caring.
In addition, the Arizona Alliance of Non-Profits advocates for and unites Arizona’s non-profit sector. Their homepage and directory can help students connect with the types of opportunity that appeal to them.
Discipline-specific community engagement programs are available through most academic departments at the University of Arizona. For example, graduate students in the English Department’s Prison Education Project teach critical reading and reflective writing in the state prison system. The Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health sponsors the “Leaders Across Borders” initiative—a program designed to hone the leadership skills of public health professionals in the US-Mexico Border region. And the Academic Health Department Initiative helps students find and complete internships throughout Arizona.
Keegan Krause, a Coverdell Fellow who has a Master’s in Latin American Studies and an M.P.H in Global Health, appreciates the premium that UArizona places on outreach and the benefits that engagement has for his research. “The University is incredibly involved in the community—in Tucson, but also on the border. We’re about an hour and a half away from Nogales, Mexico, and there’s all kinds of stuff you can get involved with. There’s the College of Public Health, there are student organizations, there are service-learning opportunities. There’s no lack of effort to get students involved in the community.”
You can find your own department’s community engagement and outreach programs via the departmental outreach and extension programs directory. Or if you’d like a more service-oriented experience, complete the volunteer interest form on the Volunteer UA homepage.
Whichever form of engagement you choose, the connections you forge with new groups of people will impact not only your own work, but also the communities you collaborate with.