MISSION
Siena College's Center for Academic Community Engagement (ACE) focuses on the development and success of our members by fostering transformative and impactful experiential learning opportunities through equity centered community engagement initiatives.
VISION
Through mutually beneficial partnerships, we provide participants meaningful opportunities to develop competence in their professional skills and serve others in ways that respect identities, empower communities, and produce positive and long lasting change.
Uniting allies for collective action in our communities.
LEARNING GOALS
- Diversity of Communities and Culture: Students understand the impact of their actions on individuals, communities and the environment and use knowledge of difference to adjust their attitudes, beliefs, and responses.
- Construction of Knowledge: Students develop integrated and generalizable skills by connecting their academic, personal, and professional interests with experiences in community engagement; students integrate lessons from the community to enhance their academic and professional interests.
- Civic Identity and Commitment: Students are able to explain the connection between one’s personal identity and systems(social and civic) as well as other individuals. Students consider addressing public issues as central to one’s sense of self and therefore, develop a responsibility to both community action and civic duties.
- Civic Communication and Dialogue: Students apply effective oral and written communication skills (e.g., listening actively, expressing persuasively(orally and written), etc.) and participate in dialogic practices necessary for giving and receiving feedback, managing difficult conversations, and engaging with community members and partners.
- Reflective Civic Action: Students analyze and reflect on their position and values within civic contexts and identify and implement well-reasoned and equitable solutions based on the needs of the community.
- Civic Contexts/Structures: Students describe the social, political, and historical contexts of civic communities. Explore how these systems operate within nonprofit and government organizations to address injustices.