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Projects with Promise

Vol. 25 No. 2

The Environment Corps: Combining Classroom Instruction, Service-Learning and Extension Outreach to Create a New Model of Community Engaged Scholarship at the University of Connecticut

Submitted
May 7, 2020
Published
2021-06-29

Abstract

An extensive faculty partnership at the University of Connecticut (UConn) that reaches across college and departmental lines is engaged in a project that seeks to enhance, expand, institutionalize, and study a new model for community engagement. The model, called the Environment Corps (E-Corps), combines the familiar elements of classroom instruction, service-learning, and extension outreach to create a method of engagement that aims to benefit students, faculty, surrounding communities, and the university community itself. This article describes the structure and history of E-Corps; details the institutional setting, faculty partnerships, and pedagogical strategies involved; and discusses early evidence of impacts and future prospects.