CAMPUS PROFILE

(LEWISTON, MainE)

The key people involved in the Bonner Foundation’s Community-Engaged Learning Initiative include:

• Ellen Alcorn, Associate Director of Community-Engaged Learning at the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and Director of the Bonner Leader Program

• Carissa Aoki, Lecturer in Environmental Studies - faculty fellow for community-engaged digital innovation program

• Francis Eanes, Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies - faculty fellow for community-engaged digital innovation program

• Leslie Hill, Professor Emerita of Politics and Harward Center Faculty Fellow - leader of "Building Capacity for Racial Justice in Community-Engaged Work" faculty learning community

• Andrew Mountcastle, Assistant Professor of Biology - faculty leader of BatesConnect online engagement platform

• Darby Ray, Harward Professor of Civic Engagement and Director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships

• Anelise Shrout, Assistant Professor of Digital and Computational Studies - faculty fellow for community-engaged digital innovation program

Below are the Institutional Change Projects of Bates College for the 2020-2021 Academic Year:

BatesConnect - It is an online platform that gives local K-12 educators easy access to learning resources created by Bates students in their community-engaged learning courses. Our goals this year have included hosting faculty development programs to introduce faculty to BatesConnect and encourage them to integrate it into their courses; connecting faculty to local K-12 educators for collaborations resulting in new resources that address educator needs; adding new student-created resources to the site; and working with colleagues in IT and in our local public school system to continue the BatesConnect build-out. To date, we have built a beta version of the platform; worked with faculty and students to create a diverse array of learning resources for K-12 educators and students; and tested the platform with local educators. We are currently working with our IT partners in the Lewiston Public School system to create a seamless interface for educators and students to access the site. 

Digital Innovation in/for Community Engagement - This brand new program is designed to build the capacity of Bates students from any discipline to design and build mobile applications, websites, and other digital tools in partnership with and for the benefit of local nonprofit organizations and social enterprises. It is a joint project of the college's Harward Center for Community Partnerships, program in Digital and Computational Studies, and Environmental Studies program, along with the DALI Lab at Dartmouth College. This year's goal has been to design and run a successful pilot program that lays the programmatic and financial groundwork for a sustained program. Progress to date includes the establishment of a collaboration with the DALI Lab at Dartmouth College; the selection of an initial cohort of ten first- and second-year Bates students; and those students' successful completion of a six-week web development course.

Building Capacity for Racial Equity and Justice - It is Bates College’s ongoing commitment to build capacity for community-engaged academic work that decenters whiteness and centers racial justice and anti-racism. During the Fall 2020 semester, the college hosted a faculty learning community that cultivated a space where early career Bates faculty could discuss disciplinary approaches to problems of racism; develop individual and collective capacity to address racial inequity in their scholarship, teaching, and/or community engagements; and connect to organizations in Maine that center racial justice work, especially those led by black, indigenous, and other people of color. The work continues in the Winter/Spring with several related programs, including a workshop for faculty entitled, "Community Engagement for Racial Equity & Liberation: Aspirations and Conversation with Dr. Tania D. Mitchell" (see flyer below). They are also offering a faculty mini-grant program to support the development of new projects or partnerships centering racial equity and justice, and a mini-grant program to help community partner organizations build their capacity for anti-racist work.

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