Community Engagement Awards Luncheon Will Be Friday, April 18

  • April 14th, 2014
  • in News

By Kirsten J. Barnes
CCBP Graduate Assistant

The Division of Community Affairs will hold its Eighth Annual Center for Community-Based Partnerships Excellence in Community Engagement Awards Luncheon Friday, April 18, in Sellers Auditorium of the Bryant Conference Center. The luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m., with the Fifth Annual Engaged Research Poster Presentation beginning at 10 a.m.

This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Katy Campbell, dean of the Faculty of Extension at the University of Alberta, Canada. Campbell, an active engaged scholar and member of the board of directors of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC), is an expert in learning and instructional design and faculty transformation. The University of Alberta will host ESC’s annual conference this year on Oct. 7–8 in Edmonton, Canada. UA hosted the ESC conference in 2012.

“We welcome Dr. Campbell to The University of Alabama,” said Dr. Samory T. Pruitt, Community Affairs vice president. “She will be this year’s host of our international Engagement Scholarship Consortium conference. We look forward to having our engaged scholars meet her and to learn from her university’s exceptional accomplishments in this field.”

Faculty/staff, students, and community partners will receive awards for projects that reflect excellence in community engagement. Individual faculty/staff, students and community partners will be recognized for distinguished work in this field.

“The projects and individuals we will honor on April 18 are at the heart of the mission of the Division of Community Affairs,” Pruitt said. “As we reapply for the five-year Carnegie Foundation’s Engaged Institution Classification, these initiatives will comprise a large part of our application.” UA received the Carnegie Engaged Institution recognition in 2008 and now must reapply.

The Community Affairs Division at UA was formed 10 years ago, and has been under Pruitt’s leadership since its inception. He also holds the position of vice president of the Board of Directors of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium and will assume the role of president in 2016.

One of the highlights of Friday’s luncheon will be the announcement of seed funds for research projects. The accepted applicants will receive amounts ranging from $2,000 to $5,000.

More than $200,000 in seed funding has been awarded since the program began in 2007, and scholars have turned those initial funds into research grants totaling nearly $3 million.

Research posters will reflect outstanding community-engaged scholarship. The emphasis of the poster will be on community-university partnerships and successful civic engagement practices.

Although the program is free and open to the public, attendees must preregister by calling or emailing the Division of Community Affairs at 205-348-8376 or community.affairs@ua.edu, respectively.