CCCE featured in Minnesota Private College Council spotlight on community engagement
The Center for Community and Civic Engagement was part of a recent Campus Spotlight story.
Carleton’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE), led by Sinda Nichols ’05, was featured by the Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) in its latest Campus Spotlight story.
Students at Minnesota private nonprofit colleges gain real-world experience from opportunities to partner in their communities. The hands-on public engagement complements students’ time in class and prepares them for work, life and active citizenship.
They also meet critical community needs, such as providing capacity-building for organizations with tighter budgets. “We’re here in a more rural community,” said Sinda Nichols, director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement at Carleton College in Northfield. “We have many nonprofits but they’re scrappier than many of the nonprofits in the Twin Cities. They have less resources generally.”
The center she leads is Carleton’s hub for academic civic engagement courses, student-run volunteer programs as well as community-based work-study hours in local schools, libraries and nonprofits. “What we tell students is our office is where you come when you want to burst the Carleton bubble,” Nichols said.