About the Office of Community Engaged Learning & Leadership
The Office of Community-Engaged Learning & Leadership functions as the hub for critical community engagement at the University and serves as an academic resource by establishing curricular standards for community-engaged learning opportunities (CEL) for University students, faculty, and community partners.
Our office offers guidance on building strong, comprehensive relationships among University students, faculty, and community organizations, fostering critical engagement and collaborative learning with and alongside communities. The design, integration, and implementation of CEL are based on participant education, engagement, capacity building, and understanding.
CEL also emphasizes the importance of community action, social change, and justice. Our office aims to develop critically engaged scholars and leaders and to implement meaningful, mutually beneficial, and reciprocal community engagement opportunities that address the current and future needs of the community, students, and faculty as a collective.
The University has been formally designated and recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a “highly engaged” R1 institution and holds the Elective Classification for Community Engagement. Additionally, our office emphasizes all of the University’s core themes through learning, discovery, and engagement. Therefore, the continued development, implementation, and improvement of the office is essential to promoting and meeting the University's goals and metrics set forth in the 2023-2027 Wolf Pack Rising Strategic Plan, the Land-Grant Mission, and the Carnegie Classification.
More about our office
Our mission is to support and promote the University’s commitment to community engagement through meaningful community-based learning experiences. We connect and integrate the campus, classroom, and community through experiential methods, mutually beneficial partnerships, high-impact practices, and the development of community-engaged professionals and scholars.
- Civic Engagement promotes the co-creation of knowledge to solve problems through collaborative efforts or initiatives between the University and the community.
- Public Service is deeply valued, and we are committed to community and public-facing work and partnerships.
- Progress and Justice enables our initiatives to build a University-Community coalition that advances society.
We strive to be a national leader in community engagement and community-engaged learning and scholarship by providing and promoting:
- Support of the University’s commitment to community engagement through learning and leadership experiences.
- Opportunities for reflexive and reflective growth in learning, scholarship, and professional development that focus on critical community and public engagement.
- The importance of collaborative partnerships that exist with and alongside our communities, which are mutually beneficial and reciprocal for everyone involved.
- Valuable and critical engagement experiences that address community-identified needs and issues.
- Cutting-edge resources and support for students, faculty and staff, and community partners.
OCELL acknowledges that the University of Nevada, Reno is situated on the traditional homelands of the Numu (Northern Paiute), Wašiw (Washoe), Newe (Western Shoshone), Nuwu (Southern Paiute) peoples. These lands continue to be a gathering place for Indigenous Peoples and we recognize their deep connections to them. We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live, learn, and educate on their territory. Please visit the Office of Indigenous Relations website to learn more about how the University honors and supports these communities.