Community-Engaged Learning Program Offers Campus-Wide CELebration

The cleverly-named CELebration, held April 17 in Crabiel Hall on the Edison campus, was created with the purpose of allowing students enrolled in Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) courses the opportunity to reflect, present, and educate students and faculty on their experience in the program.

“Community-Engaged Learning is a program where academic courses are partnered with a community organization and, as part of the course work, students work on a project that benefits the community while also reinforcing course-learning outcomes,” said Kimberly Silverio Diaz, coordinator for Civic Engagement and Experiential Learning.

The student presentations ranged from an Intro to Geology class coordinating a community cleanup to a United States History II class helping a local library update archives and better connect with their own history. Community partners included the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Middlesex County Clean Communities, NJ Pride Center, Perth Amboy Public Library, and many more.

Though the projects varied, the through line between each presentation was the gratitude that the students felt for the experience of using their education to connect with the community.

This semester’s Social Psychology class, led by Professor Nikki Gonzalez, partnered with Inclusive Creations, a nonprofit that provides an encouraging and fun environment for young adults with autism and other cognitive disabilities to learn vocational skills.

“[This] has been my most meaningful service-learning experience,” said Mel Mancheno, a student in the CEL social psychology class. “We’ve supported Inclusive Creation’s work with the autism community while gaining a deep, integrated understanding of autism through a social psychological lens. It’s pushed us to grow, not just as students of psychology, but as advocates in our community.”

The students collaborated with Inclusive Creation’s founders, Hema Menon and Neelam Golani, to support their mission through participating in local events and creating a social media awareness campaign.

“Too often, simply textbooking a class can make the content seem distant. CEL classes answer that question,” said Social Psychology CEL Professor Nikki Gonzalez. “Our world is social psychological. We build, do, and imagine things better when we work together. In sharing our resources, we can make incredible changes.”

Menon and Golani were incredibly grateful for the students’ support as well as the chance to continue strengthening their ties to the community.

“[The students’] creativity and digital expertise have helped us discover new perspectives, reach more people, and spread awareness,” said Menon and Golani. “Together, we are building a more inclusive and supportive community.”

Any Middlesex College student can enroll in a CEL course, which fulfills most general education requirements, benefiting both themselves and those served by the nonprofit community partners.

“Other schools do it, but what makes Middlesex College so unique is that we do this with a community-first approach,” Silverio Diaz said. “We see what the need is in the community and look for interested faculty and classes that can match.”

Learn more about Community-Engaged Learning here: https://middlesexcollege.edu/community-programs/community-engaged-learning/