Each year, between 80-100 community-engaged learning courses are offered at UVM. CELO works to facilitate reciprocal partnerships within these courses between community organizations, professors and students. Students apply their coursework in real-world settings, and in ways that address priorities identified by their community partners. Faculty provide a structure for accountability to the project or service that benefits the community partners and helps students learn from their experience. 

Students doing work as part of community-engaged learning partnerships may engage in:

  • Direct service → i.e. working with people: tutoring, mentoring, planting gardens, etc.
  • Indirect service → i.e. sorting food, measuring trees, collecting GPS data, etc.
  • Consultant-type services → i.e. producing deliverables: marketing plans, policy papers, educational campaigns, engineering designs, etc.
  • Research → i.e. data collection & analysis: interviewing staff, volunteers or clients; studying comparable organizations elsewhere; statistical analysis of existing data sets, etc.

Examples of Community Partnerships

  • restoration ecology work

    Restoration Ecology in Burlington Parks

    UVM's Restoration Ecology class teamed up with Burlington’s public land steward at the 63-acre Mackenzie Park, a field and floodplain forest along the banks of the Winooski River. Split into seven teams, the students designed the restoration plan – and provided the labor – to plant seedlings, control invasive Japanese knotweed, stabilize the riverbank, and install new signs on the recreation paths.

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Community Partner Roles & Responsibilities

As part of the reciprocal partnership with faculty and students, community partners may be asked to:

  • help design the project, and/or create a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the faculty member
  • provide necessary training to students implementing the project
  • supervise students on-site
  • provide feedback to students on projects or performance
  • attend final presentations of projects
  • provide feedback to faculty on student participation

If you are interested in working with a community-engaged UVM course, or with individual students as part of a service-learning internship, please contact us at celo@uvm.edu. We are always happy to discuss opportunities for collaboration.

AY22 Community Partners

Below are some of the community organizations, associations, local governments, schools, and nonprofits that UVM students worked with in the past year. Please note that not all faculty choose to report their partners publicly, while other partners (e.g. international) are not included in our data.

Partners

Addison Northwest School DistrictMoscow Mill
Age Well VermontMount Mansfield Union High School
Agency of Natural ResourcesMudcraft Studio
Bayada HospiceNext Generation Vermont
Bread and Butter FarmONE Arts Center/Collective
Bridges to HealthPride Center of Vermont
Burlington Dept. of Parks, Recreation & WaterfrontProtect Our Wildlife
Burlington Dept. of Public WorksReSOURCE
Burlington High SchoolRichmond Elementary School
Burlington Media FactoryRock Point Commons / Diocese
Burlington Public School DistrictRock Point School
Camp ThorpeSara Holbrook Community Center
Cathedral SquareSouth Burlington School District
Champlain Elementary SchoolSpecial Needs Support Center
Champlain Valley Head StartSpotlight VT
Chittenden Regional Correctional FacilityState of Vermont Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Christ the King SchoolState of Vermont Dept. of Forest, Parks, & Recreation
City of South BurlingtonState of Vermont Division of Law Enforcement
Climate and Human Health ProgramSupport and Services at Home
Community Development and Applied EconomicsSustainability Academy
Connecting CulturesThe Homestead Preschool
Crow's PathThe Nature Conservancy
Davis StudioThe Watershed Center
Dear TomorrowTown of Killington
Digger's Mirth Collective FarmTown of Montpelier
Enosburg Falls Middle & High SchoolTown of Panton
Ernie Duncan HoopsTrinity Children's Center
Essex CHIPSUpward Bound
Ferrisburgh Conservation CommissionUVM Campus Master Plan
Fleming MuseumUVM Catamount Farm
Fletcher Free LibraryUVM Center for Health and Wellbeing
Franklin County Conservation DistrictUVM Medical Center
Gan Yeladim PreschoolUVM Office of Student-Community Relations
Girls Who CodeUVM Physical Plant
Greater Burlington YMCAUVM Women & Gender Equity Center
Green Mountain Animal DefendersUVM Writing Center
Grow WildVermont Adaptive Ski & Sport
HOPEworksVermont Attorney General's Office
Howard CenterVermont Climate Council
Howe LibraryVermont Land Trust
Humane Society of Chittenden CountyVermont Law School
Intervale CenterVermont Public Health Association
Janet S. Munt Family RoomVermont Public Health Institute
Jericho Settlers FarmVermont Works for Women
Little Royals Early Intervention ClinicVTDigger
Living Well UVMWild Roots Farm
Merck Forest & Farmland CenterWilliston Conservation Commission
Migrant JusticeWinooski Natural Resources Conservation District

Community Partner Feedback

Community feedback is crucial as we work to offer both students and partners a positive and mutually-beneficial experience.

If you or your organization are...

  • partnering with a service-learning course at UVM
  • hosting a student internship
  • working with students engaged in research

...we'd love to hear from you about the experience!

Please send any reflections, questions, or concerns to celo@uvm.edu.

 

Questions for Community Partners

Below are some examples of the questions we typically ask community members and organizations who are partnered with UVM service-learning courses:

  • How did you connect with this particular course?
  • Did you or your organization help to determine the project undertaken by the class?
  • Did you have enough discussion in preparing to work with the class to understand...
    • The scope and scale of the intended project?
    • Student skills and ability levels?
    • Desired learning goals for the students?
  • Did you have sufficient information about these or other issues at the start of the project?
  • Were the students professional, knowledgeable and responsible?
  • Were there any logistical challenges in working with the students?
  • Did the students’ work and/or deliverables provided meet your expectations?
  • Do you feel the students were adequately prepared for or supported in their service-learning work?
  • Could you briefly describe the impact of the students’ work on your programs or activities?