Community-Engaged Scholarship in Higher Education: An Expanding Experience

Higher education in this country has always been expected to serve the public good. Sometimes, the emphasis is on preparing educated citizens or practitioners in especially critical fields and how public service can deepen and enrich learning and prepare students to lead purposeful, responsible, and creative lives. Sometimes the focus is upon institutions themselves as major intellectual and cultural resources for a community. In this paper, based on the keynote presentation at the Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative's invitational symposium, the author explores four levels of engagement: the individual, the academic community and its concepts of scholarship, the institution and its relationships with its immediate community, and the role of higher education within a large network of interactions that define a region of innovation.