2024-27 Strategic Plan
The CCE’s three-year, strategic plan was drafted during the ‘23-’24 academic year to identify priority goals and where to focus our work. The plan was created through facilitated discussion and in collaboration with campus partners, students, faculty, and external community partners.
Four strategic planning areas outline objectives and the actions needed to meet these objectives. The planning areas identified include: Access and Partnerships, Civic Leadership Development, Academic Integration, and Intercultural and Global Learning. These are explained in further detail below.
Access and Partnerships
We support students to explore their established and emerging interests through hands-on community engagement. We help students build relationships and find ongoing commitments that align with their values. We also provide multiple entry points for sustainable collaborative relationships with community partners and faculty.
Goal
Increased transparency and visibility for how to enter into community-engaged learning relationships for community partners, faculty, and students.
Objectives
- Create accessible maps with key pathways for engagement among different stakeholders.
- Launch plan for sharing maps with opportunities for all audiences.
- Understand and map CCE networks to identify engagement/communication opportunities.
Supporting Programs
Civic Leadership Development
Our co-curricular programs foster students’ team leadership skills, promote long-term relationships with their community members and peers, and address social issues like migrant justice, nutrition access, democratic engagement, and youth development.
Goal
A thriving civic learning ecosystem with scaffolded pathways to develop collaboration skills, maintain long-term community relationships, and address social issues.
Objectives
- Design and roll out a Civic Leader Certificate program.
- Cross-pollinate knowledge, leverage resources, and encourage collaboration among student leaders, community partners, and campus partners to support common goals.
Supporting Programs
Academic Integration
We allow students to directly connect theory to reality with hands-on practice. We also coach and support faculty to incorporate community-connected pedagogies into their teaching and research.
Goal
Emerging integration of community-engaged programs into academic systems across the Middlebury institution.
Objectives
- Create a standard identifying element marking community-connected learning courses in the course catalog.
- Explore, assess, and integrate communities of practice for students.
- Explore, assess, and integrate communities of practice for faculty.
Supporting Programs
Intercultural and Global Learning
We provide year-round opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and study-away students to work and learn with communities diverse in culture, language, and experience. Students develop their global curiosity and knowledge, cultural humility, and the skills of conflict transformation.
Goal
Established global partnerships with shared learning objectives and collaborative procedures that are both consistent and flexible.
Objectives
- Assess and align learning objectives across programs.
- Assess, align, and articulate program processes, ensuring alignment with values and learning outcomes.
- Share learning outcomes and program processes with new and established partners, and assess/develop collaborative procedures with those partners.