Whittier College's Center for Engagement with Communities (CEC) welcomed more than 40 representatives from various partners in the Whittier community and beyond to its Community Partner Workshop. The half-day workshop was designed to engage the College's partners in a discussion around the needs for service learning in the community and how to work better in order to meet those needs.
An authority in service learning and featured speaker, Dr. Christine Cress, professor of educational leadership, policy and service learning at Portland State University encouraged event attendees to establish clear goals that connect engagement, action, and research in their service learning projects.
Some of the CEC partners who participated in the workshop included: Rio Hondo College, YMCA, Whittier High School, PIH Health, Whittier City Library, BCM Foundation, Whittier Conservancy, among many others. Whittier College faculty was also in attendance.
The CEC promotes course-based service learning, for-credit internships tied to programmatic requirements, and faculty-student research on issues that both address compelling needs in the community and enhance academic learning, both here and abroad.
Whittier College is a partner of Learn and Serve America, a member of California Campus Compact and has been designated an engaged campus by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The Corporation for National and Community Service has named Whittier College to the President's Higher Education Honor Roll with Distinction consecutively since 2010.
