Academic Civic Engagement
At Carleton, Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) has long referred to an approach to education focusing on community-based learning. Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) courses put academic skills and learning to work in the service of community priorities.
Carleton faculty offer about 20 ACE courses each term, including both applied and theoretical designations, across all majors and disciplines. Most ACE courses are project-based, with students using their academic skills and learning in the classroom to create videos, archives, oral histories, data visualizations, statistical analyses, digital resources, and more, while learning firsthand from community leaders.
- ACE Courses may be Applied, which generally indicates that a civic engagement project is an integral part of the course and often involves collaboration with community partners.
- ACE can also be Theoretical, meaning that the course focuses on the theoretical exploration of civic engagement. These courses intentionally focus on issues related to democracy, civic engagement, or systems change, and may include case studies, scenarios, and class visits from scholars, community, and business leaders outside of Carleton. ACE theoretical courses intentionally address one or more ACE learning objectives.
ACE Research
Students can work with individual faculty members on faculty-led ACE research projects with a community partner. These projects are initiated and directed by a faculty member, are for-credit, and are often worked on as a longer-term project with partners that can be more than one term.
ACE Learning Objectives
- Nurturing a commitment to life-long civic engagement
- Understanding issues in their real-world complexity
- Recognizing and honoring different forms of knowledge that may reside in/with community partners
- Awareness of your positionality, or who you are as you seek to do civic engagement efforts (such as gender, race, socioeconomic background, ability, and level of formal education)
- Doing — how can you take your course content and do something with it beyond the classroom while learning in the process?
- Developing leadership skills
ACE Course Search
Search the Carleton course catalog for ACE courses — filter by Applied or Theoretical.
Funding for ACE
- Application for an ACE Teaching Assistant (TA)
- Application for a Student Public Scholarship Assistant
- Requesting CCCE funding to support your course
- Application for Community Collaboration grants
- Provost Office Grant: Ethical Inquiry Outside the Classroom
- Provost Office Grant: Puzak Fund for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement
- Provost Office: Class Field Trip Funding Request
Associate Director for Academic Civic Engagement and Scholarship
Emily Seru
Sayles-Hill 157
(507) 222-4851
eseru@carleton.edu
Academic Civic Engagement and Scholarship Coordinator
Fay Dacey
Sayles-Hill 159
507-222-4162
fdacey@carleton.edu
