Georgiana Chevry serves as an AmeriCorps member with Campus Compact VISTA at a project hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

In 2015, Campus Compact initiated an exploration of what it might mean to create a professional certification for higher education community and civic engagement practitioners that could advance practitioners’ preparation, improve civic experiences and partnerships, and yield better results for students, institutions, and communities. Four years later, the Compact is on the cusp of rolling out this first-of-its-kind Community Engagement Professional (CEP) Credentialing Program. 

Earlier this week, James B. Dworkin, Ph.D., chancellor of Purdue University North Central, was elected new chairman of the board of Campus Compact, a nonprofit coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents —representing some 6 million students—who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. He assumes his post from outgoing chair John J. DeGioia, Ph.D., president of Georgetown University.

This blog post is part of a three-part series on the third annual national convening of Newman Civic Fellows hosted by Campus Compact the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The essays in this series are written by Newman Civic Fellows who won an essay competition among attendees of the convening. This essay is written by Atticus Rice, a communications and political science major at McDaniel College.