社区和城市: An ACE Course

Over two years ago, during my first term at 菲律宾十大彩票平台, I enthusiastically wrote about the prospect of taking my first Academic Civic Engagement class. ACE courses are designed with an approach to community-based learning 和 are sponsored by the Center for Civic 和 社区 Engagement. They come in two formats: theoretical 和 applied, since writing that original blog I have taken several courses in both varieties. Here’s a review of some of them.

Academic Civic Engagement: Applied

The vast majority of ACE courses offered each year are applied, which generally means that the civic engagement project is a central component of the class 和re is direct involvement with a community partner or with the community at large.

My first-ever applied ACE course, though I didn’t know it at the time, was my 论点 & 调查研讨会, for which we were required to attend several live 剧院 performances in Northfield 和 Twin Cities. Other applied ACEs I have taken include Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy 和 社区和城市 (which I talk about below), but my favorite by far has got to be 教育心理学.

对于EdPsych, each student was partnered with a local K-12 teacher 和 asked us to shadow them for a few hours a week 和 report back on how our experiences connected to the concepts 和ories we were learning about in class. I was lucky to be paired with a 4th 和 5th grade teacher at Prairie Creek 社区 School who made my time there incredibly enjoyable 和 informative. So much so that I still visit her classroom once a week even after finishing the course, a field trip that continues to be one of the highlights of my week.

Academic Civic Engagement: Theoretical

In contrast to applied ACE courses, theoretical ones focus on (you guessed it!) theoretical exploration of social justice, 关系结构, other similar issues 和 how students might engage in work toward positive social change. Because the ACE component is less visible, it can sometimes be hard to even realize you are taking a theoretical ACE course. For instance, I have taken (at least) two theoretical ACE courses: 多元文化教育 和 我对这里也不熟, but I did not learn that these were ACE courses until researching for this very blog!

索安 214: 社区和城市

This term, I took my most recent ACE course; an elective in the Sociology/Anthropology department 被称为 社区和城市. What attracted me to this course was precisely the fact that it advertised itself as an applied ACE course that would be researching affordable housing 和 manufactured homes.

We were interested in learning about a proposed manufactured housing co-operative community that, 如果得到批准, would be built in Northfield 和 offer more affordable housing opportunities for local residents. 这样做, the class split into four research groups, each of which delved into an issue or concept relevant to the proposed co-op project. In addition to a couple of guest speakers who told us about the project itself 和 about Rice County’s housing crisis more generally, each group interviewed several stakeholders, from real estate developers to contractors 和 city council members. We also attended a community hearing event to hear from 和 talk to residents about their opinions on the proposed housing project.

Finally, we put together all our research 和 presented our key findings to the Northfield Housing 和 Redevelopment Authority during a 2-hour meeting that also welcomed many community members. We hope that our research will help shed some light on the potential advantages 和 challenges of building a manufactured housing co-op in town 和 amplify the voices of those who could most benefit from such a project.

作为大三学生， 法蒂玛 (she/her) is excited to continue her pursuit of a 索安 主要和(希望如此)!) 教育研究, 拉丁美洲研究, 跨文化研究 未成年人. Outside class, she enjoys her leadership roles with 在基督里的交通 和 Undergraduate Journal for Humanistic Studies. In her free time, 法蒂玛 likes spending time with her 学员, poorly playing the piano, watching cartoons, desperately missing her dog, Cosmo. 认识其他博主!