Students often come to Temple University to experience Philadelphia’s rich culture and connect with the neighborhoods that make the city so unique. To build on that interest, the university’s new Community Engaged Learning Initiative will promote the development of courses that give students more opportunities to learn from and with communities throughout the city. 

The initiative is led by the Office of Community Impact and Civic Engagement but is a collaboration with partners across campus, including the College of Education and Human Development and the Center for the Advancement of Teaching. Its mission is to incentivize faculty to develop experience-based courses that connect undergraduate students from all majors with the history, communities and institutions of Philadelphia. 

“Since President Fry arrived in November of 2024, we have amplified our civic engagement program,” said Valerie Harrison, vice president for community impact and civic engagement. “We know that social disconnection hinders economic and social mobility, and so we are trying to deepen Temple’s culture of community engagement with this initiative.” 

In March, Harrison, along with President John Fry and then-Provost Gregory Mandel, asked faculty to submit proposals about courses they teach which allow students to engage with the community.  

Those proposals were then reviewed by a committee consisting of M. Meghan Raisch, assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Development; Bryant Simon, Laura H. Carnell Professor in the College of Liberal Arts; and Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, senior associate dean in the College of Theater, Film and Media Arts. 

The committee assessed the nature of community engagement present in each proposal before selecting seven awardees. Winning faculty members will get to teach their proposed course in the spring 2026 semester. Additionally, more than $13,000 was split between the awardees to cover operating costs related to their community-engaged course. 

The awardees are 

• Bench Ansfield, assistant professor of history, College of Liberal Arts;  
• Olivia Deneige Cohen, assistant professor of communication, Klein College of Media and Communication; 
• Lauren Kogen, associate professor of media and communication, Klein College of Media and Communication; 
• Kelly McGinn, assistant professor of psychological studies in education, College of Education and Human Development;  
• Juris Milestone, associate professor of anthropology, College of Liberal Arts; 
• M. Meghan Raisch, assistant professor of advocacy and organizational development, College of Education and Human Development; and 
• Christina Rosan, professor of geography, environment and urban studies, College of Liberal Arts. 

“All of the proposals were wonderful. The ones that really stood out had some component of mutually beneficial work, meaning there was a benefit to the university as well as the community,” said Raisch, who submitted her proposal before being tapped to join the review committee and recused herself from voting on her own proposal. “That’s exactly how we want community-engaged learning to occur. We want to see that students have opportunities to co-construct knowledge with community members.” 

In Raisch’s class, School-Based Community Service, students will make weekly visits to the Tanner Duckrey School to conduct interactive read-alouds with small groups of children during the literacy block, while working alongside school district teachers and staff from the community-based nonprofit FatherRead365.  

Ansfield’s class, The Politics of Housing in Philadelphia, will task students with conducting community-engaged research on the housing question in Philadelphia’s past and present in partnership with community organizations and city agencies like the Philadelphia Housing Authority and the Housing Court Watch initiative. 

And in Kogen’s class, Media Campaigns for Social Change, students will create a media campaign that promotes positive social change in North Philadelphia in partnership with several nonprofits including Mount Ephraim Baptist Church and Beckett Life Center. 

Harrison says that the Community Engaged Learning Initiative is a continuation of the kind of community-engaged work that Temple has fostered throughout its history. The Center for the Advancement of Teaching had previously developed a program for community-based learning, which served as a blueprint for the new initiative. The center will also support the new initiative by training faculty members who wish to incorporate more community-focused learning outcomes in their courses. 

“Our Temple colleagues have been doing this work for years and created a solid structure to support this new initiative,” Harrison said. “Meghan, the review committee and I simply built upon their foundational work, which was very comprehensive.” 

Plans are already underway for the next round of the initiative. Proposal submissions will open on Nov. 17 and be accepted through Jan. 5, 2026. Awardees will teach their courses in the fall 2026 semester.