Grant to support Campus-Community Link program

Not every academic experience a student has at college is learned in a classroom.

The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation recently granted the West Virginia Campus Compact $235,000 to be used toward its Campus-Community LINK program.

Since 2010, the Campus-Community LINK program has provided WVU professors with the funds to lead students in service learning experiences in class, which will aid rural communities by providing solutions to problems they face.

Last year's initiatives included a "Buy Local" campaign in Ritchie County, an evaluation of tourism efforts in Monroe County, the development of distance learning initiatives in the community of Ansted and website construction and additions to the Kimball World War I African American Soldier Memorial in McDowell County.

"It's all about creating a sustainable high impact in these rural West Virginia communities," said Campus-Compact Director Franchesca Nestor.

Each professor leading a service learning experience will receive $5,000 toward equipment, training, travel and other expenses.

Nestor said she is excited for students to have an opportunity to partake in the beneficial experiential learning projects through the Campus-Community LINK program. The courses provide students with opportunities to better compose their resumes and prepare them more efficiently for the workforce, she said.

"In our focus groups we found that for a lot of students these were their hardest courses – yet they liked it," she said. "They are doing actual work with actual meaning that makes a high impact now."

The West Virginia Campus Compact, which is a state chapter hosted in Morgantown, is compiled of 27 colleges and universities across the state are dedicated to promoting civic engagement beyond the classroom through various programs.

"Students are getting a lot more out of these projects than they are in the traditional classroom settings," Nestor said.

For more information on the West Virginia Campus Compact and its programs, visit www.wvcampuscompact.org or contact Nestor at Franchesca.Nestor@mail.wvu.edu.