The Center for Community Engaged Leadership, Learning, and Research recently submitted an application to receive the Carnegie Foundation’s Classification for Community Engagement. This national designation recognizes higher education institutions’ commitments to working with their local communities. The Carnegie Foundation defines Community Engagement as “collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.” To determine whether Bucknell will receive the Community Engagement Classification, the Carnegie Foundation examines not just the Center for Community Engaged Leadership, Learning, and Research, but how […]

For the past three years, the Center for Community Engaged Leadership, Learning, and Research (CCELLR) has been working on a project called the Kindness Campaign. The Kindness Campaign originated in 2020, with the local Evangelical Hospital speaking with Susquehanna Valley regional United Way about starting a positive youth kindness campaign, which they would fund. That year, the campaign lasted for a week with its biggest highlights being at a Bucknell men’s basketball game, where the campaign was shared with the community, merch was given out, and really the core of this campaign was started.  Stacey Piecuch, the Assistant Director for […]

On March 19th, the Center for Community Engaged Leadership, Learning, and Research hosted its annual Empty Bowls event, which raises funds for a weekly hot-meal program in Milton, Community Harvest.  Attendees purchase a ticket for the event, and with their ticket comes a ceramic bowl made by students at 7th Street Studio and a bowl of soup provided by Chartwells. On top of that, Empty Bowls also had an auction featuring local art and donations from local small businesses, the proceeds of which also go to the Community Harvest Food Program. At each dining table, there were also resources with […]

The following are two reflections from the engaged spring break experience of the half-credit CEL course “Food, Faith, and Justice”. The course explores the following questions: why are people food insecure in Baltimore in 2025? How is the community responding (through direct service, grassroots organizing, policy, research, and advocacy)? How do we fit in? And how do we build hopeful, resilient. thoughtful communities of response? To read reflections from more students, please click here. A Journey Toward Belonging Shaheryar Asghar ’28, participant Yesterday felt different; it was a day where coming to Baltimore no longer felt like an adjustment — it […]

For more information on “Freedom First” and the performer, Keith Lamar, a poet on death row, who will perform via bluetooth speaker during the concert. here is a NYT piece that explains both very well: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/arts/music/keith-lamar-death-row-freedom-first.html

Written by Amira Faden This past semester, I have had the honor of taking a poetry class through the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. The course took place in a local prison: 8 of the students came from Bucknell (“outside students”) and 8 of the students were incarcerated in the local prison (“inside students”). We met one afternoon each week within the prison for a series of discussions, writing exercises and sharing sessions on the subject of reading and writing poetry. Together, we established a foundation of trust and connection that allowed us to learn from each other. Two conversations come […]

On April 16, 2024 Sarah Junkin Woodard visited Bucknell to talk to alumni of the Bucknell Brigade, past faculty leaders and staff members. She gave a wonderful overview of the program’s beginnings and where it is now. She kindly agreed to record her presentation for our website, so that today’s Bucknellians can witness the tremendous difference the work of Jubilee House has made in Nueva Vida, Nicaragua. You can download the video here.

In a 2024 civic engagement event, Passport to the World, which was held at the Lewisburg Children’s Museum on Saturday, March 30, the Foreign Language Teaching Assistants at Bucknell University brought their cultures from Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lebanon and Spain to local children. Children also got to learn about the American Deaf Community and the culture of American Sign Language (ASL). The festival featured hands-on crafts and activities, such as Japanese origami, coloring the flag of Colombia, making Play-Doh Italian pizza, and crafting the national tree of Lebanon. To read more about the event and its […]

The following are two reflections from the engaged spring break experience of the half-credit CEL course “Food, Faith, and Justice”. The course explores the following questions: why are people food insecure in Baltimore in 2024? How is the community responding (through direct service, grassroots organizing, policy, research, and advocacy)? How do we fit in? And how do we build hopeful, resilient. thoughtful communities of response? To read reflections from more students, please click here. Finding Solutions in Strength Katie Schadler ’26, participant The Food, Faith, and Justice 2024 cohort spent our first full day in Baltimore meeting the Black Church Food […]