Amanda Wray
Oral History Activist | Digital Media Creator | Educator

Community Engaged Teaching
Connecting university students with local organizations to practice new skills, build community, and create useful products that support the organization's mission.
Community engagement is considered a high impact practice that leads to:
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Reduction in stereotypes and broadened racial and cultural understanding (Bowman, Brandenberger, Mick, Smedly, 2010; De Leon, 2014; Seider and Hillman, 2011)
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Improved disciplinary knowledge retention (Warren, 2012; Pelco, Ball, Lockeman, 2014)
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Development in terms of student efficacy, personal identity, spiritual growth, and moral development (Astin, Vogelgesang, Ideda, Seifer, 2002; Yee, 2000)
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Improved ability to work with others and leadership and communication skills (Simons and Cleary, 2006; Eyler and Giles, 1999)
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Increased student commitment to service post-graduation (Astin, Sax, Avalos, 1999; Winston, 2015; Bernacki and Bernt, 2007)
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Improved application of disciplinary learning to the “real world” (Terry, Smith, McQuillin, 2014)
“Once we start talking in the classroom about the body and about how we live in our bodies, we’re automatically challenging the way power has orchestrated itself in that particular institutionalized space. The person who is most powerful has the privilege of denying their body."