Fall 2021 UPLC planning
The UPLC program was paused during Covid, primarily due to the focus on community building and in person/community engagement. As Emory opens up for the Fall 2021 term, the UPLC looks forward to beginning a planning process for a new round of UPLC work. Details are not yet known but please look for an update here or on the CFDE website.
2019 UPLC Co-designed Projects Forming
Utilizing the University-Partner Learning Community (UPLC), three to four projects are forming that connect ideas of South DeKalb County community leaders with interests of Emory faculty, staff and students. Themed around a broad definition of health and based in South DeKalb County, Emory’s CBSC and the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE) are excited to help facilitate the connections creating project ideas.
The main themes of the emerging projects are the connection between food and faith, mindfulness as a practice for youth and supporting young leaders in an anti-litter campaign involving art. Faculty from across Emory and a number of key staff and student leaders are working to shape these exciting partnerships.
Fall 2018 University-Partner Learning Community: a partnership focused on community health and well being in south dekalb county
Living well for the long term
DeKalb Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative (DSNI), DeKalb County and CBSC Project Team.
Beginning in the Fall 2018, Emory’s Community Building and Social Change programs and the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence will be facilitating the second University-Partnership Learning Community. Building on both the successes and lessons learned from the UPLC work with Buford Highway communities, we are excited about the potential for important community based engagement in South DeKalb.
The first meeting of the South DeKalb UPLC was held at Emory University and included 18 participants representing community and nonprofit leaders from South DeKalb with a strong contingent of Emory faculty, staff and students. The UPLC goal is to collectively create a set of initial projects by the end of November 2018, with direct activities receiving support from the CBSC/CFDE to begin early in 2019.
spring 2017 University Learning Community: Learning and leading together, building partnerships on Buford Highway
The Work of Art in the World—The Art of Work in the World
In Spring 2017, the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and the Center for Civic and Community Engagement (Campus Life) facilitated a pilot University Learning Community focused on the Buford Highway Corridor, and organized around the theme of Art and Social Transformation. The 26 participants included students, faculty, staff, and community partners learning together how to create excellent community-campus partnerships. As part of the learning community, seven mutually agreed-upon projects were launched, having been informed by our discussions, readings, and listening to each other. The projects kicked off as early as the Spring 2017 term with many underway in the Fall 2017 term. At a recent gathering of the ULC participants, future plans are being build among existing project partners as well as via new connections created via the ULC experience.
The University Learning Community Kick-off Retreat
ULC Launch
The first gathering of the pilot University Learning Community was a half-day retreat held in Emory's Woodruff Library. 26 attendees participated in several activities aimed at breaking down perceived hierarchies among the group, exploring areas of shared interest and community building around shared meals. The use of Pre-Texts as a method for shared engagement among this newly formed group.
Teresa Totten of The DeKalb Public Libraries and partner in the Human Libraries Project
Initial projects
Seven distinct projects emerged from the Spring 2016 ULC gatherings. These each include valuable experiences working with Buford Highway area residents connected to Emory University faculty, students, staff and courses. ULC generated activities range from using photography to explore healthy relationships to teaching improv theater exercises as part of test preparation. Read about the Human Library project partnership that grew from the ULC.
imagining america national conference session - Crossing Boundaries, Changing Culture: One Story at a Time Workshop
How can academic institutions use stories to flatten hierarchies and cross boundaries both within the academy and in relationship with communities? Emory University has developed several strategies that emerged from IA Cultural Organizing Institutes as well as other community organizing practices. This workshop presented strategies used within the university, in community engagement, and in courses as effective reaching tools. IDEAS Fellows then facilitated a story circle with a prompt that elicited narratives about encounters with other people that unexpectedly changed perceptions of the world or one’s own beliefs.
The University Learning Community was highlighted as an avenue through which story telling is both breaking down barriers and building partnerships.
Session Leaders included:
Vialla Hartfield-Méndez, Professor of Pedagogy, Spanish; Director of Engaged Learning, Office of the Provost
Kim Loudermilk, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Liberal Arts; Director, IDEAS (Interdisciplinary Exploration and Scholarship) Fellows Program
Kate Grace, Director, CBSC Fellows Program
Shan Mukhtar, Assistant Director, English as a Second Language Program, Emory Writing Program
John Wang and Julia Munslow, Undergraduate IDEAS Fellows