Engaged Learning Expo connects students with opportunities

Campus and area organizations help students take education beyond the classroom.

SMU students who wanted to learn outside the classroom, tackle real world issues and explore potential careers as part of their university experience met with representatives from DFW-area organizations and agencies who wanted their help during the Engaged Learning Expo on August 27, 2012.

The expo celebrated 100 SMU undergraduates who worked on significant projects this summer, and provided opportunities to mix and match interested students with 15 different campus programs, as well as 45 DFW-area community partners.

“A student who engages in a learning activity beyond the classroom has the opportunity to transfer the knowledge and skills of the classroom to a real-life situation, learn from the experience, reflect on it and use it as a basis for further learning,” said Susan Kress, director of Engaged Learning at SMU. “This is a taste of what it means to be a lifelong learner, and, for some, the first step in living a life of meaning and success in a complex world.”

“SMU students are entrepreneurial,” Kress said. “They identify pressing issues in communities and come up with solutions.”

Community partners at the Expo:

  • American Red Cross
  • Baylor Health Care
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters
  • Catholic Charities of Dallas
  • Child Care Group
  • Dallas After School Network
  • Dallas Arboretum
  • Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center
  • Dallas CASA
  • Dallas Community Lighthouse
  • Dallas Holocaust Museum
  • Dallas Peace Center
  • Dallas Zoo
  • Equest
  • Genesis Women’s Shelter
  • Goodwill Industries
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • Heart House of Dallas
  • Human Rights Initiative
  • I Have a Dream Foundation
  • Interfaith Housing Coalition
  • Jubilee Park & Community Center
  • Junior Achievement
  • NARA (National Archives & Records Administration)
  • Nicolini by Organicity
  • North Texas Food Bank
  • Operation Kindness

Other community partners at the Expo:

  • Readers 2 Leaders
  • Resolana
  • River Legacy Living Science Center
  • Ronald McDonald House
  • Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
  • Texas Discovery Gardens at Fair Park
  • The Senior Source
  • Senior Citizens of Greater Dallas
  • Trinity River Mission
  • Uplift Charter Schools
  • Variety – the Children’s Charity
  • Vickery Meadow Learning Center
  • Vogel Alcove
  • Wilkinson Center
  • Workers Defense Project
  • Youth Achievement Foundation
  • YWCA of Metropolitan Dallas
  • Room to Read DFW
  • S.A.Y. What?

Campus programs at the Expo:

  • Center for Community and Education
  • Hart Center for Engineering Leadership
  • Institute for the Study of Earth and Man
  • Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility
  • Tower Center for Political Studies

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