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Home : Community Engagement & Service Learning

Engagement

A core value

We integrate community engagement as a core value to our teaching and social mission and see educational access as a fundamental right and a form of community empowerment.

We strive to create, foster, and strengthen relationships between the Latino community and the University of Minnesota. We have a long-standing history of developing collaborations with our partner sites.

Our approach

Our approach to civic engagement is asset-based and premised on the notion that the rapidly growing and still emergent Latina/o community in Minnesota is facing an important crossroad in its development where efforts to promote civic engagement must include plans to increase direct civic participation. Enhancing the public voice and visibility of the Latino community is crucial to community development and empowerment at multiple levels.

We believe that community collaboration provides opportunities for resource sharing, the mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and capacity building that enhances the long-term sustainability of efforts.

Our students and our department

Our students serve as tutors and mentors through service-learning classes. They work with many local community organizations as part of a class requirement, a specific course(s) on community engagement and social justice, or an internship.

Additionally, our department often becomes involved in issues important to the Latino community and seeks to support efforts that promote a Latino-centric agenda and strong community voice.

We also are proud to be one of the founders of the MN Network of Latinos in Higher Education