12th Annual SEEA Conference & Research Symposium

Community Engaged Learning (CEL) is a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs. Faculty and educators facilitate these experiences by creating each facet of the engaged activity with a designated community partner, discussing and evaluating the mutually beneficial, reciprocal relationship that ensures all parties are supported. The specific links between the CEL experiences and the student learning outcomes are reflected in the activities that the students take part in as an intentional part of the instruction and contributes to the depth of students’ learning within the context of their studies. Students are given ongoing structured opportunities for critical reflection before, during and after their engagement that are designed to have them pause and consider how what they are seeing and experiencing matters not only to themselves, but also the communities in which they live and grow. In this session, Kelly Porter, design and environmental educator, will discuss this dynamic pedagogy using case studies from courses she’s created at the higher education level that merge design, EE and environmentally based non-profits in her community of Northeast Tennessee. Attendees will learn best practices in Community Engaged Learning (CEL), including guided reflection as a key stage of the CEL process. They will also receive resources to help them begin their own CEL initiatives from both the educator’s and the community partner’s perspectives.
This session aligns with the volunteer track, as CEL fosters a reciprocal exchange—providing students with real-world, high-impact learning experiences while supporting community partners through meaningful service-learning projects.
Additionally, this session fits within the ""EE through a societal lens"" track, as CEL pedagogy encourages students to reflect on how their efforts throughout a project directly impact their communities. This reflection can foster a heightened sense of empathy and an awareness of the significant effects their actions can have.