Campus Compact is seeking applications for three Civic Action Plan Design Fellows who will serve as key contributors to our revitalized Civic Action Planning initiative and help us support campuses in building strategic capacity, goals, and action plans that align their day-to-day practices with their values, ensuring that civic and community engagement are broadly and deeply integrated into institutional strategy and action. Apply today—applications are due November 6.
Enhancing our Civic Action Planning initiative
The Civic Action Planning framework provides campuses with a blueprint for aligning practice with values—envisioning an integrated approach to teaching, scholarship, and institutional policies. During the 2024-2025 academic year, Campus Compact will revise and enhance its existing Civic Action Planning offerings by crafting new tools, online repositories, workshops, and consultations, that respond to the needs of today and support campuses in holistically actualizing sustainable change. The refined Civic Action Planning tools will support campuses in preparing for accreditation visits, applying or reapplying for the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, and actualizing comprehensive and sustainable change.
Future offerings will include a suite of "go deep" instructions and guidance that will allow campuses to enhance their efforts in specific focus areas—like community-engaged research, anchor strategies, or place-based partnerships. The first of these "go deep" modules will be developed in partnership with the CLDE Coalition (with support from the Endeavor Foundation) to help campuses build their strategic capacity, goals, and action plans around student participation in civic and democratic learning, as outlined in the CLDE Coalition's report, Every Student, Every Degree.
About the fellowship
The Civic Action Plan Design Fellows selected as part of this application process will serve as key contributors to our revitalized Civic Action Planning work. They will collaborate with each other, Campus Compact, and the CLDE Coalition to revise and update the Civic Action Planning process and develop supplemental materials and tools. Campus Compact is seeking three fellows across two fellowship types:
- 1 Strategy fellow: This Fellow will work to reimagine the Civic Action Planning template and process, ensuring that it supports campuses in building campus-wide commitments, strategies, and action planning to advance the public mission.
- 2 Content knowledge expert fellows: These fellows will collaborate to develop a Civic Action Planning framework to help campuses "go deep" on student civic learning and democratic engagement.
Project commitment & timeline
The Fellowship Term will begin work in December 2024 and continue through August 2025. The bulk of the Fellowship work will occur between December 2024 and March 2025, when Fellows can expect to dedicate approximately 5 hours per week to the project. During January 2025, the fellowship and staff team will convene virtually over a few days for a series of intensive development sessions–the exact dates will be based on the availability of selected individuals. From June 2025 to August 2025, the workload will taper to approximately 5 to 10 hours per month, including some participation in network-wide training and implementation workshops.
- December 2, 2024 - Fellowship Begins
- January 2025 - Virtual Design Team Development Sessions (dates TBD)
- March 31, 2025 - Launch Redesigned Civic Action Plan at Compact25
- May 2025 - Public Launch via National Webinars
- June - August 2025 - Additional Webinars & Workshops
Compensation
Selected Fellows will receive a $5,000 stipend for their work, $1,000 travel support and complimentary registration for the Compact25 conference, and recognition as contributing authors of the updated Campus Compact Civic Action Planning Framework
Qualification & selection criteria
Selection will be based on relevant knowledge, experience, and potential contributions to the design and implementation process. We encourage individuals with content knowledge, expertise, and experience in any of the following areas to apply:
- Actualizing civic and community engagement policies and procedures at institutions and across higher education systems.
- Embedding the principles of civic engagement and democratic learning, as well as high-impact community engagement practices throughout all aspects of the postsecondary education curriculum.
- Ways of identifying and establishing concrete civic and community engagement outcomes and how to go about measuring, evaluating, assessing, and documenting the progress.
While it would be helpful if applicants have experience with the following, it is not required:
- Guiding a civic action planning process, either utilizing Campus Compact’s current Civic Action Planning template or a similar framework.
- Direct involvement with college/department or institutional-level accreditation or the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification/Reclassification.
- Leading or playing an integral role in any type of strategic planning committee, whether at an institution of higher education, nonprofit agency, or similar organization.
- Active involvement in curricular change intended to strengthen students’ civic learning and democracy engagement.
Application & selection timeline
Applications for the fellowship are due November 6, 2024, and fellows will be notified of selection in late November 2024. To apply, interested individuals should submit:
- Curriculum Vitae or Resume highlighting their specific project-relevant experience
- Brief Narrative responding to the following prompts (maximum of 2 pages):
- Which type of Fellowship is of interest—Strategic or Content Knowledge Expert—and why?
- Describe your experience implementing or participating in Civic Action Planning or similar processes. Include how you may draw on these experiences if selected as a Fellow.
- Discuss the content knowledge, expertise, and experience you bring to the project. How does it contribute to the Fellowship type of interest?
- Discuss how this Fellowship could align with and contribute to your professional goals.
- Describe your experience working on a collaborative team, your vision for this collaborative project, and the skills you will bring to the team.
Apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WCXLWCQ.