Opportunities for Engagement
Public Scholarship Associates
Join the Public Scholarship Associates, a collaborative and interdisciplinary cohort of faculty and staff, who are committed to applying scholarship to public problems and to fostering democratic capacity among Penn State students.
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Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement
Encourage your students to consider the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement.
Develop or enhance a Public Scholarship course that will directly support the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement.
Develop a Freshman Seminar in Public Scholarship through your discipline.
Help to implement the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement at your campus. The CIVCOM Minor currently exists at Penn State Beaver, Brandywine, Erie, Greater Allegheny, Schuylkill, and University Park.
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Undergraduate Exhibition
Encourage qualified students to participate in the Public Scholarship category of Penn State's annual Undergraduate Exhibition. Consider being a faculty advisor or mentor for student's interested in sharing their public scholarship work through the Exhibition.
Public Scholarship is a special Exhibition category recognizing scholarly work that actively contributes to community engagement and democracy. Public scholars apply disciplinary expertise to problems and issues of consequence to communities beyond the classroom. In this category, students are able to showcase academic and creative work contributing directly to the artistic, civic, cultural, economic, educational, environment, scientific, or social well-being of local, national, or global communities. Undergraduate students from all Penn State campuses are invited to enter poster or performance presentations to showcase their work to a general audience.
The Undergraduate Exhibition is held in April. The 2009 poster guidelines and application information will be available in the fall semester.
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Discovery Summer Grants
Mentor students in Public Scholarship through a Discovery Summer Grant.
The Office of Undergraduate Education has created the Undergraduate Discovery Summer Grants program to promote faculty/undergraduate collaboration as students engage in original research, scholarship, and creative work during the summer under the supervision of a faculty member. Penn State undergraduate students from all campuses in all fields of study may apply for a grant. Twenty grants in the amount of $2,500 are usually available.
Further information about the 2009 Discovery Summer Grants will be available in the fall.
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Constitution Day
Join us in challenging students and members of the public to look carefully at the constitutional roles of citizens in a democracy through the curriculum. Design a component of a course which will engage your students in Constitution Day 2008.
The Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy is encouraging student engagement in Constitution Day through the curriculum. Embedding constitutional understanding into the curriculum and then sharing that curriculum with others provides an effective laboratory for democratic learning. For Constitution Day 2007 students in courses in the Departments of Architecture and Communications Arts and Sciences, and the College of Communications designed and built displays, conducted research, and prepared for readings and discussions at the intersection of society, current public debate, and the constitution.
Planning for Constitution Day will begin early in the spring semester of 2008. Contact Dr. Mary Lou Zimmerman Munn, Assistant Director of the Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy and co-coordinator for Consitution Day, at mzm10@psu.edu.
Beyond a national celebration of the Constitution, our goal is to develop the democratic capacity among young people that is necessary to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities as citizens.