Experiential Learning Collaboration Opportunities

Purpose

Our goal is to integrate the curriculum and co-curriculum by encouraging faculty to collaborate with the College’s curricular and co-curricular centers and institutes to incubate and embed high impact experiential learning into the curriculum.

The purpose of this list is to generate greater awareness among faculty about the experiential learning opportunities available to integrate into new course development.

This list will be available on the Curricular/Co-Curricular Collaboration Stipend Request form for faculty to request funding to design new courses.

Interested faculty members can apply for a stipend to support Curricular/Co-Curricular Collaboration. Questions can be directed to Jim Duffy, Assistant Vice President for Co-Curricular Education, or Jeanne Hamming, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

Experiential Learning Opportunities

Center for Career Engagement

Jillian Bradley, Assistant Director, Employer Engagement jbradley@gettysburg.edu

The Center for Career Engagement (CCE) helps students every step of the way towards their own, unique career path. Through cultivating knowledge, skills, networks, and experiences, we empower students with the necessary tools and strategies to create and pursue meaningful futures. We value the opportunity to collaborate and partner with Gettysburg faculty to support students in their professional and academic development.

Opportunities for course development include:

Build in enduring skills and career-readiness tools to course syllabus and assignments
Identify and invite employers and/or alumni into the classroom
Coordinate a site visit to the location of an employer

Examples

Some examples of past significant collaborations include:

Teaching students how to make the most of the Gettysburg network by assigning an alumni informational interview assignment
Partnering to create an alumni panel to target interests and needs of the course, industry, or major
Designing and developing a series of career-readiness presentations, including resume and cover letter development, how to search for jobs and/or internships, and interview skills

Testimonial

“The career panel that Billy and the team at CCE facilitated reinforced the idea of Gettysburg College—and German Studies within the college—as tight knit communities. One of the major obstacles that students across Humanities fields encounter is the overwhelming number of potential career paths and opportunities that students are able to pursue. By bringing together alums from various different career paths, ranging from teaching to business to non-profit administration, and at differing stages in their careers, students gained new ideas about the potential applications for the skills they have been developing in our classes. Students left the meeting feeling energized and upbeat about their career prospects after graduation, and I feel that our alums also relished the opportunity to take on an active role in helping to mentor and guide our students. Billy and his team made assembling and scheduling this panel an easy task, and they were responsive to specific requests to invite specific alumni or alumni now employed in specific fields. It was also an ideal opportunity to review the many resources that CCE makes available to our students to help them with networking and professionalization.” ~ Tres Lambert, Associate Professor, German

https://www.gettysburg.edu/offices/center-for-career-engagement/faculty-administrators-staff/

Garthwait Leadership Center

Paul Miller, Director, Garthwait Leadership Center prmiller@gettysburg.edu

The Garthwait Leadership Center empowers Gettysburg students, employees, and young alumni to lead ethically and effectively. Through our expertise in facilitation, coaching, and outdoor experiential learning, we offer a wide variety of engagement offerings to help learners discover their authentic self and develop the skills to work collaboratively with others towards positive change. We have expertise in developing trust in group space, developing and facilitating participatory group processes, simulation/scenario design, and accessing remote natural areas. We are also equipped to partner on the course design and execution for three-week intensive courses that include a significant remote field component.

Opportunities for course development include:

Support student participation in class. We can lead a trust building workshop which fosters a participatory classroom environment. These work best early in the semester or prior to a challenging dialogue.
Group Project Lab. We will review tools for peer group work and then experientially challenge students to test and apply the new learning. Students will learn how to set shared expectations, manage roles, share perspective, make decisions, and manage conflict.
Support student travel in remote locations. No water, no electricity: no problem. We can provide the professional outdoor skills required to care for basic needs in remote locations.
Develop student public speaking skills. We offer one-on-one peer coaching for individual students or students in a course to improve their ability to design and deliver public presentations. This can be required as part of a course or optional.

Examples

Some examples of past significant collaborations include

Integrating a cultural simulation into an environmental humanities course
Supporting trust and resilience development in a sequence of class sessions for the STEM Scholars FYS
Supporting a group of faculty in accessing petroglyphs via sea kayak
Integrating outdoor living skills and an overnight training trip into a biology field course in preparation for travel to a remote part of South America

https://www.gettysburg.edu/leadership/

Center for Public Service

Jeff Rioux, Director, Center for Public Service jrioux@gettysburg.edu

The Center for Public Service (CPS) connects students and faculty with community-based work to foster social change. CPS supports faculty teaching Community Based Learning (CBL) courses. CEL is a pedagogical model that connects classroom-based work with meaningful community involvement and exchange. Within the context of equitable partnership, community organizations and students mutually benefit from the CEL experience both by meeting course objectives and addressing community-identified goals.

Opportunities for course development include:

Become a Community-Based Learning Faculty Fellow

Faculty who want to connect their courses and/or their research to the community can participate in a year-long fellowship to learn the pedagogy of Community-Based Learning, and to work through the practical elements of introducing them to the assets and challenges of our community, establishing partnerships, developing the syllabus, reflection, and assessment. More than 30 faculty members have completed this Fellowship.
Apply for Grants to support CELR

When faculty do engage in Community-Based Learning and Research, they often have the need for money to implement a course (travel, stipends for community partners), to develop a new course, to pursue research in the community. CPS offers CELR grants in four categories to faculty, which mutually supports the goals of CPS, the learning goals of particular departments, and faculty development, teaching, and/or research.
CPS Program Coordinators can support faculty teaching CEL courses

This support comes in many forms: keeping track of volunteer hours which students in a course are required to complete; arranging for clearances for students who need them to volunteer; giving tours of the Painted Turtle Farm to students in ES classes; arranging field trips to local community partners. Other support becomes more extensive, such as when Chris Kauffman’s theater course partnered with the El Centro program; students from Kauffman’s class were paired with elementary school students from El Centro to guide them in writing original plays, which Kauffman’s students then performed at a celebratory event. The PCs for El Centro coordinated with Kauffman to make all parts of this project run smoothly
CPS Staff can support course learning goals

Faculty often ask CPS staff members to speak in classes, organize panel discussions, or lead tours when course content relates to local realities. CPS has developed both a Walking Tour of Gettysburg and a Driving Tour of Adams County that introduces students to the assets, challenges, and landscape of their new home. We are regularly asked by faculty members to lead these tours for classes, in particular as part of First Year Seminars

Examples/Testimonials

““I’ve worked with CPS to carry out quite a few community-based learning projects with my students. CPS staff members are endlessly supportive and helpful, and they consistently challenge me to do better, think more creatively, and learn more. Engaging in meaningful collaborations with community partners is the best part of student learning in my courses. By working directly with local children and families, my students learn to think differently about social justice issues that are embedded in course material but only come alive in human relationships with the very people impacted by these issues. CPS is a vibrant space for student and faculty growth, an invaluable partner to so many people in our community, and a treasure on our campus.”

Kathy Cain, Professor of Psychology

https://www.gettysburg.edu/offices/center-for-public-service/faculty/

Eisenhower Institute

Brigid Goss, Assistant Director of Student Engagement bgoss@gettysburg.edu

The Eisenhower Institute (EI) empowers young leaders to address society’s toughest public policy challenges in real-time. Our experts guide students into communities both in the U.S. and abroad to see the effects of policy decisions firsthand, engage with those impacted, develop creative solutions, and advocate for action. Gettysburg College students gain valuable, hands-on experience in public policy through our high-impact programs—at no extra cost. Through teamwork, problem-solving, and unique experiential learning, the Eisenhower Institute equips students to become tomorrow’s change-makers!

Opportunities for course development:

Lead an EI seminar or fellowship

Faculty partner with the Eisenhower Institute to develop and lead a semester or year-long, non-credit seminar or study trip that provides immersive, hands-on experiences for students. Participants gain practical skills essential for successful careers in public, private, and non-profit service. As program leaders, faculty engage students in real-world policy discussions and projects with professionals, fostering critical thinking and leadership skills.
Bring EI experts to your classroom

EI’s nonresident experts and guest speakers include policy professionals, business leaders, government officials and subject matter experts who can visit your class virtually or in person. This unique opportunity provides students with direct access to thought leaders in various fields. We create multiple avenues for engagement, from large campus wide lectures and panels to personalized class visits. These experts share insights on current events and public policy issues, offering real-world perspectives, and engaging in meaningful discussions with students.
Develop a personalized, high-impact activity with EI

Create a hands-on experience that fosters engagement, critical thinking, and personal growth by examining solutions to real-world challenges. EI staff work with faculty to design customized, interactive workshops and simulations related to your course content that bridge the gap from learning to action. These activities are effective for first-year and sophomore seminars, individual courses, and majors within an academic department. For example, Dialogue to Action is a year-long program that trains students in effective dialogue techniques and communication skills, leading to a group advocacy project, field trip, or other in high -impact activity.
Take your class to Washington, D.C.

Our D.C. office is centrally located in the nation’s capital, offering an ideal setting for your class visit. We can provide meeting space, direct you to experts in various fields, help arrange logistics and offer recommendations for site visits to make the most of your day trip to the nation’s capital. We have also connected Gettysburg students with students from other colleges and universities visiting or studying in the DC area.
Apply for LCWS-EI Consortium Summer Fellowship

Through a collaboration between Lutheran College Washington Semester (LCWS) and the Eisenhower Institute, the Consortium Summer Fellowship program offers faculty and staff at Gettysburg College, the chance to spend a summer in Washington, D.C. Participants advance their work as scholars, educators, and higher education professionals. Whether to access unique resources available in D.C., draw inspiration from the city’s museums and monuments, or simply enjoy a change of scenery, Washington provides an ideal setting for faculty from any discipline to enhance their work and professional development during the summer months.

Examples/Testimonial

Program leaders

“The Eisenhower Institute has been a stalwart and creative partner to me in my work with students on issues of poverty, homelessness, affordable housing, and food security in America today. From working with me to bring national leaders to campus for a panel on Homeless Veterans, to providing the DC base for my First Year Seminar on homelessness, to encouraging me to lead a seminar on Building America: Affordable Housing, EI consistently and generously has helped me to provide students with a rich and varied set of practical experiences which inform and extend our academic explorations of this challenging and important range of social issues.” - Christopher Fee, Professor/Graeff Chair, English Department

Examples

https://www.gettysburg.edu/eisenhower-institute/

Innovation and Creativity Lab

Josh Wagner, Manager, Innovation and Creativity Lab jwagner@gettysburg.edu

The ICL is an open environment where students, faculty, and staff can create, connect, and explore. The lab offers a continually expanding collection of equipment, tools, and materials to help everyone bring their ideas to life.

Opportunities for course development include:

Request a design thinking workshop
Incorporate a hands-on class project
Take your class on a virtual field trip using VR technology

Examples/Testimonials

https://icl.sites.gettysburg.edu/impact-report/

https://icl.sites.gettysburg.edu/