About CCEL

Mission and Strategic Priorities 

 The Center for Community Engagement & Learning connects academic programs with community needs to use scholarship and action for the mutual benefit of the University and the State, its communities, and its diverse peoples.

Since 2006, UAA has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “Community Engaged Institution.”  The Center for Community Engagement and Learning serves as a central locus for the intersection of student learning, faculty research, and community engagement.

Center for Community Engagement and Learning Definitions

Strategic Priorities:

1. Instruction: Enhance student learning by linking civic knowledge and skills with professional or disciplinary expertise.

2. Research & Scholarship: Contribute to the scholarly and professional-practice discourse about community-engaged learning and research.

3. Educational Opportunity & Student Success: Provide academic, collegial, and financial opportunities and supports to foster student participation in community-engaged learning.

4. UAA Community: Provide faculty development and service opportunities related to community-engaged teaching and scholarship, and maintain relationships with other programs and units on campus.

5. Public Square: Foster collaborative, reciprocal relationships between UAA and partners in the Anchorage, Southcentral, state, national and international communities, specifically within the context of academic programming.

In order to serve faculty and students across the campus and represent the University as a whole to the community, the Center for Community Engagement & Learning resides in the Office of Academic Affairs.  The Center is led by a full-time Director and the department consults with an Advisory Council composed of UAA faculty & staff, community partners, and students.