Cultivating Social Engagement at a Small, Rural Liberal Arts University

Graceland University is a small, private liberal arts institution with 850 students in a town of 1500, where the nearest signs of city are an hour away. Many of our lower level foundational courses are filled with majors, minors, and students taking the course to fulfill general education requirements. Over the past two years, we have done a major overhaul of our foundations program to include intensive conceptual development where students of any major can be challenged through interdisciplinary research, risk-taking, idea development, and visual problem-solving in our small rural community. We’ve added a Socially-Engaged-specific course that focuses on community assessments, mapping, social justice and engagement. The university is rooted in service learning, sustainability, and social equity within the LGBTQ community and persons of color. I will share how our students are using our small community as a lens to see what is possible in their rural home communities through socially engaged works. I will also address a community sources mural done this summer in Huntington West Virginia and its impact on our Governor’s Honors Academy students and the community.