The Kenyon College Office for Community Partnerships fosters collaboration between Kenyon and the Knox County community for purposeful and positive engagement in addressing issues of common interest. The office works with local organizations, institutions and businesses to strengthen the fabric of community life while advancing the mission of the College to provide a fulfilling liberal arts education and promote civic responsibility.
To accomplish our educational mission, we engage faculty and community representatives as equal partners in developing student research assignments connected with everyday life; in creating opportunities to apply academic knowledge to real-world problems; and in providing hands-on experiences with social and civic realities.
• Trust
• Reciprocity
• Curricular Enrichment
• Promotion of Civic Responsibility
• High-Impact Practices
Through these core values, the Office for Community Partnerships commits to reinforcing civic responsibility within the context of a liberal arts education. We endeavor to enrich curriculum by exposure and collaborative exchange with community resources and utilization of local knowledge.
The Office for Community Partnerships assists in brokering relationships with community partners, training faculty and students to participate in community-engaged pedagogies, and reporting community impact.
Community-Engaged Learning: Course work designed to address specific community needs and/or access community knowledge while providing opportunities for reflection on real-world, hands-on experiences. Independent or course-related research designed to address specific community questions posed by community partners.
Community-Based Experiential Learning: The accomplishment of tasks that meet genuine human needs in concert with conscious educational growth. These interactions are connected to a course, internships or paid employment opportunities.
Community Service: Volunteer activities carried out by individuals, of their own free will, that benefit others and that are not compensated. Individuals are students, faculty and staff who represent the college.