The EXL Center for Community Engaged Learning

Congratulations to Laila for matching with South Street Ministries this summer! We're excited about the reentry work you'll be doing!

Join the EX[L] Center for Community Engaged Learning on Wednesday, Aug. 19, for a Zip Trip to the baseball game before the fall semester begins! The Akron RubberDucks will face off against the Harrisburg Senators at 7 17 Credit Union Park, with the first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. Open to UA students, faculty, and staff. Wear your UA or EX[L] gear to the game. You can purchase tickets here:

https://www.gofevo.com/event/UofAEXL

Our new cohort of Akron Community Engaged (ACE) Scholars are phenomenal! These community engaged staff and faculty are from multiple colleges and disciplines here at UA. We're so excited to provide resources and support for their community engaged teaching, scholarship, and service.

Interested in seeing our full list of Active ACES? Find the directory here: https://canva.link/nwedbf5kqyjx0qf

Over the last decade, EX[L] has hosted countless internships with community partners through our Akron Community Internship Program. Take a look at what we've accomplished, here:

https://youtu.be/TBFh4Zzhnco

EXL Center Akron Community Internship Overview Learn more about the Akron Community Internships we've hosted here:...

At our EX[L] Awards this year, we also recognized our new cohort of Akron Community Engaged (ACE) Scholars! Here's our new Emerging Scholars, a great group of staff that we are so excited to provide networking and professional development for this year.

As part of our EX[L] Summer Institute, we invited our ACE Scholars to an [Un]class 101 workshop! We heard from a panel of veteran [Un]class instructors and we gave the full history on how the [Un]classes came about.

In the afternoon, we started our own [Un]class on collegiate gambling, to get us prepared for the real thing in the fall! Thank you to Zack from Towson University for giving us the debrief. Each group of faculty and staff then took on the role of [Un]class student, decided what their priorities are, and started the research process.

[Un]class alumni from ten years ago remember that these courses started with a question/ problem, a community partner, and the idea that everyone brought an important perspective to the table. Learn more about our upcoming [Un]classes and the over 75 previous ones we've held this past decade, here: https://www.uakron.edu/exl/unclasses/

Students, faculty, and Cleveland Browns staff worked together to come up with a safety plan for the new Dawg Pound training campus in Berea. Dr. Insun Park of Criminal Justice and Dr. Jeffrey Pellegrino from Emergency Management/ Disaster Sciences brought this idea to life alongside students from different disciplines over the course of this [Un]class. Watch the video to learn more about George's experience!

https://youtu.be/zATsUEQF4XU?si=Z7cJI-gk8i7Gkmd-

Securing the "Dawg" Pound University of Akron students work interprofessionally with the Clev...

We love the Commuting Critters bus! 🥰

This year's Distinguished Award went to Dr. Sydney Chinchanachokchai in the College of Business, Department of Marketing! Sydney has been working with community partners in her classes for years, and we wanted to show our appreciation for her. She has also been an Akron Community Engaged Scholar with us as well as a Faculty Steering Committee member for EX[L]. Let us know your favorite class moments with Sydney!

Find the full program of our 2026 EX[L] Awards here: https://canva.link/ohernls9981c5ix

Heads up - we're looking for an AmeriCorps VISTA position starting this summer. Work with us to design a community-based Federal Work Study program, support our data collection needs, and redesign our Internship. Email your resume to [email protected] and [email protected] to apply. More information can be found here https://www.communitycampuscoalition.org/now-recruiting-2026-27-exl-center-americorps-vista/