CAMPUS PROFILE

(Danville, va)

Initially founded in 1859 as a Baptist women’s college, Averett University in Danville, Virginia has experienced tremendous change over the last 150 years. However, our dedication to our students has remained constant, thanks to our strong sense of mission, which centers on preparing students to serve and lead as catalysts for positive change. Averett fulfills this mission by educating students from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and nations through liberal arts-based undergraduate and graduate programs in a personal, collegial, interdisciplinary environment. Our core values reflect our mission:

• Promoting lifelong learning – Technical knowledge of a profession is important, but it has an expiration date. At Averett, we teach our students adaptive skills that will empower them to lead and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Research capabilities, critical thought, clear communication, and creative problem solving are all hallmarks of the Averett University graduate, regardless of his or her major.

• Personal attention – Our 12:1 undergraduate student-professor ratio ensures that an Averett education is a collaborative endeavor based on close relationships between students and faculty. At Averett, our faculty bring industry success, academic distinction, and a deep interest in your success to the classroom.

• Practical skills – Experiential learning and service-learning are long-standing features of an Averett education. Whether you are student teaching, exhibiting in the annual art show, taking flight classes, or training horses at our Equestrian Center, at Averett, you will put concepts learned in class to the test in a real-world environment.

• Diversity and Cultural Awareness – Today’s economy is more globalized than ever, and we aim to graduate students with a strong sense of how the world works. Our learning community includes students from more than 27 states and 13 different countries, and our Study Abroad program gives students the opportunity to gain first- hand experience of other cultures.

• Tradition – We embrace Averett’s Judeo-Christian heritage by honoring the search for truth and spiritual formation. Averett University is affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia, but is open to students from any faith background (or no faith background).

Dr. Billy Wooten, Dean of Engaged Learning and Executive Director of Averett’s Center for Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness, and April Love-Loveless, Director of Averett’s Bonner Leaders Program, serve as CEL Project co-leaders. In connection to Averett’s faculty, staff, students, the CEL Project is designed to connect our campus entities to the CCECC’s vast network of 200+ nonprofits and for-profits who need capacity-building support. We know that engaging our students in a wide range of high-impact practices scaffolded over their time at Averett not only enhances their learning but also maximizes persistence and retention.

Averett’s CCECC is the driving force behind the University’s community engagement efforts and career development experiences. We recognize and embrace the responsibility to coordinate community engagement efforts in the Dan River Region and demonstrate our responsiveness to regional interests by adapting programs to meet the needs and priorities of the Region and bring about lasting and positive growth for not only the University but also for our entire community.

Through the lens of our community engagement mission, Averett’s 2019-2020 CELI project focused on revamping and growing our service-learning program and community-based research model. Through our faculty fellowship model, we were able to bring 11 departments and 24 faculty members to the table to embed service-learning, career development, and Bonner curriculum into Averett’s culture. The 2019-2020 CELI provided us a much-needed mechanism to accomplish our goals, and we:

• Developed an electronic database of all community partner sites with their updated needs

• Created 12 new service-learning courses

• Created 26 new workplace experience sites

• Implemented our TAP (testing assistance program) for career development placements

• Created a new series of interdisciplinary courses in career development across the

  curriculum

• Cultivated new faculty mentors for Bonner capstones

• Developed a Bonner teaching assistant model

• Bridged our Bonner community work and the classroom experience

Our CELI 2020-2021 work centers in cultivating more community members as part of our fellowship series in service-learning, career development, and Bonner Leaders. We intend to develop a community as co-teacher model for faculty to consider as well as further our work in creating and implementing new service-learning partnerships, workforce pipelines, and reimagining our work-study program into a work college model called Averett Corps.

The last element of the 2020-2021 CELI project is to create a framework for a leadership minor that includes five courses. This new minor will synthesize disparate work already being done on campus in the areas of service-learning, Bonner, career development, the Honors program, and other departmental endeavors. The CELI faculty will help create the mission, values, and curricular framework for the five-course minor and will draft the proposal to send to Averett’s curriculum committee for approval and implementation.

In the spirit of learning from each other, we humbly share pdfs of our Service-Learning Fellowship Curriculum and Handbook, our Career Development Fellowship Syllabus, as well as our Bonner Fellowship Syllabus and Handbook.