(Post updated: Oct 24, 2024)
As you finalize your plans for the coming semester, please refer to the information and resources below. The Nashman Center Community Engaged Scholarship team is happy to support you in any way we can. Please reach out to Wendy Wagner, wagnerw@gwu.edu.
Resources for Community Engaged Scholarship Courses
Faculty Guide to the Community Engaged Syllabus
- Template language to use/adapt to your own syllabus. It’s important to help students understand WHY you have included community engagement in your course.
- Theory based recommendations for communicating the intentionality of your course to students, and why it is important to do so.
Student Guide to Community Engaged Scholarship Courses
Share the Student Guide with students on your syllabus or on blackboard:
http://go.gwu.edu/cesstudentguide.
- Checklist for initiating community engagement projects
- Agenda for the first meeting with a community partner
- How to report service activities so course instructors and community partners can confirm
- Staying safe and serving responsibly
- Reporting gender-based harassment and/or receiving support
Welcome to Community Engaged Scholarship Event
Friday, January 24, 1-2:30 pm | USC Grand Ballroom | Register here
Each semester, the Nashman Center hosts an event to help prepare students in Community Engaged Scholarship Courses for responsible and reflective service-learning. Particularly for courses in which students do “direct” service (interacting regularly with community members on-site), many faculty include this event in their syllabus, substituting it for a class meeting day or as a small assignment option (as an alternative to a short pre-reflection paper).
The event invites leaders of local community-serving organizations and students with course-based service experience to speak about how to have the best possible service and learning experience for all involved.
Step-by-Step Guide to DC Public Schools Service Clearance
- To serve with DCPS and several youth serving organizations in DC, DCPS Clearance is required (and valid for two years)
- If students respond to all steps in the process in a timely way (background checks and fingerprinting), this can be completed in 1-2 weeks. Encourage students who would like to serve in DC schools or with nonprofits who operate programs in schools to complete these steps as soon as possible.
Special Considerations for International Students
Student Visas do not allow students to work. Community engaged scholarship projects are clearly NOT work, but we need to help international students prove their projects with us fit into that category. Students need a letter from the community organization they serve with, on the organization's letterhead, with a signature. The content of this letter needs to address a list of issues, so we provide a template here.
Find Community Partners
For most courses, it is ideal to design the course around on-going relationships, honoring the same campus/community partnerships from year to year. This isn’t possible for all course subject-matter, and the Nashman Center will help facilitate campus-community partnerships in any case.
The Nashman Center staff meets regularly with our closest campus partners to discuss their priorities for the coming year, including their interest in course-based partnerships.
For "direct service" courses, for which students provide weekly service, interacting regularly with community members (such as tutoring or staffing food banks), we have generated a list of organizations who have confirmed they have the capacity to onboard students serving for only a 15-week semester.
For “indirect” service courses, in which students may do an occasional site-visit but the service is a capacity building project is completed remotely (such as database work, graphic design, or grant-writing) we have a lists of community partner organizations who have expressed interest in these types of projects. Please meet with Wendy Wagner to discuss community partners to connect you to.
Nashman Center Course Guides
Every Community Engaged Scholarship course is assigned to a member of our student staff who serves as a Course Guide. Your GWServes course page shares the name and photo of your Course Guide, as well as a button to send an email message. Encourage your students to contact their Course Guide with any question related to finding service opportunities or reporting completed service activities.
Expect an email introduction from your Course Guide at the beginning of the semester. Instructor and Course Guide work together to determine the best ways the guide can support you and your students. Suggestions include:
- Collect liability waivers for students serving on-site. Course Guides can communicate directly with your students and let you know when all forms are submitted.
- Help students connect with community partners, including individually advising students who are new to community engagement experiences.
- Field student questions about how to report their service activities in GWServes.
- Communicate with community partners to ensure the student projects are meeting their expectations and going to plan.
- Collect anecdotes, photos or other artifacts from your students and community partners to help us better describe the impact of your course for partners and student learning.
- Forward your students information about additional Nashman Center opportunities, including opportunities to present or publish on their service experiences, service awards, and how to apply for funding to social innovation initiatives that may grow from their service experience in your course.
Class Presentations
The Nashman Center staff are happy to join your class to facilitate learning activities and discussions related to community engagement values, responsible and reflective service, or the Pathways to Service model. Please reach out to Wendy Wagner to discuss options.
Student Service Reports on the GWserves Course Page
Students should use your GWServes course page to report their service activities, which shares the information with you, the community partner, and the Nashman Center.
How often students report and who verifies this report is your decision and should be communicated on your syllabus and to your Nashman Center Course Guide so they can support you appropriately.
- For students serving weekly on site, community partners typically verify the service and may find it easier to do so if students report weekly.
- Students creating deliverables or doing other indirect service projects for partners may benefit from monthly reporting, to keep their progress on track. In these cases, usually the course instructor verifies the students' impact reports, as they are better positioned to monitor progress. (Alternatively, faculty who want students to regularly communicate progress to community partners can use the verification of impact reports to monitor that).
- Some instructors only require students to report their project once, at the end of the semester.
If you or your students have any questions about how to report service on GWServes, don't hesitate to reach out to your Nashman Center Course Guide or Wendy Wagner.
Maximizing your GWServes Course Page
Access Your Course Page:
- Go to gwserves: https://gwserves.givepulse.com
- In the menu at the top right, choose “My Activity” and “Classes”
- Select your class page from the options
Your course page simplifies the ability to:
- Provide information about service opportunities that are a fit for your course. Work with the Nashman Center to add opportunities that are a fit for your learning goals.
- Identify new community partners for your course by browsing the community
organization profile pages. - Distribute and collect liability waivers (your Course Guide can facilitate this for you).
- Monitor student service activities, including where each student is serving, what they are doing there, and how many hours they have completed so far.
- Communicate with community organizations about on-going student progress (community partners can see students’ service reports), share your syllabus, and collect feedback through internal communications or surveys.
- Capture data on students’ service to report at the course or department level, and from year to year. GWServes data helps us analyze and report student interest and program-level impact: by neighborhood, social issue, and community partner organization. This is particularly useful when multiple courses work with the same community organization.
The Nashman Center staff will create a basic course page for you. As the administrator of the page, you are encouraged to add more information to it.
Other Supports
Fund for course-based community engaged scholarship projects
A small fund exists to support community-based initiatives emerging from student engagement through courses. Funds available are limited to $150 per project. Students can apply online here.
Travel to on-site service
GW joined the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) U-Pass program. This program offers unlimited rides on the Metrorail and Metrobus. All undergrads participate in the program, and graduate students have it available as an option, with a discounted, flat annual fee.
For service sites that are not accessible via WMATA, the Nashman Center can arrange for students to use our Lyft account. This must be done well in advance. Have students reach out to GWserves@gwu.edu.
In addition, the Knowledge in Action Career Internship Fund (KACIF), established by GW's Career Services Council can also support student service projects. Students must apply at the beginning of the semester. Interested students can go to the KACIF website to review more information, including eligibility requirements and application instructions.
General Resource Links
Bookmark these websites on your browser for quick answers to most of your questions and up-to-date information.
- The Nashman Center Website
- The Nashman Center Faculty Update is shared as both a blog and e-newsletter
o The blog allows you to review resources by category or by term search
o The e-newsletter ( subscribe here ) arrives in your email inbox - GWServes Community Engaged Scholarship Subgroups help faculty and community partners with shared interests, connect, communicate and share information about events, resources, and opportunities to work together.
