Center for Community Engagement

About the Center for Community Engagement

In January 2015, President Cole formally announced the creation of the Center for Community Engagement (CCE). Over the past six years, the Center has taken its first steps toward building a campus-wide Center that serves as a central hub connecting the campus to local communities and works to maximize the University’s status as a Community-Engaged Campus recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Montclair State’s commitment to engage beyond the campus is central to its mission as a public institution of higher education and is supported by numerous curricular and co-curricular units across campus. The Center, however, is the only unit on campus specifically tasked with engaging the University’s rich academic, artistic and cultural resources in partnership within the community. Each year the Center engages over 1,000 students in partnership with 200+ community partners to seek solutions to real issues of public concern.

Community-engaged learning pedagogies such as service-learning and community-based research have been one of the primary means through which the Center connects the campus to the community and where faculty and students put their learning and research into practice. Community-engaged learning not only provides students an opportunity to connect course content to real-world issues, but it also offers an invaluable window into the roles and responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society–a core value of any liberal education.

Community Engagement refers to the process of which individuals and organizations who collaborate within a community to establish a positive working relationship for the purpose of building and bettering the community as a whole. The Center for Community Engagement plays an important role in managing both organizations who are in need and individuals who want to serve in our community.

We invite you to learn more about the Center (see below) and to get involved!

Opportunities for Faculty

We invite faculty to join the Center and its team to work together to fulfill our vision of an engaged university; one where learning and research are transformed and grounded in human caring and experience while contributing to the growth of healthy and vibrant communities.

Opportunities for Students

The CCE provides many opportunities for students to get involved with local communities. From the Bonner Leader Program and National Days of Service to AmeriCorps and the Community Engaged Learning program, we invite students to join the CCE to get engaged, give back, and make a difference in their lives and the lives of others.

Opportunities for Campus and Community Partners

The Center is committed to developing sustained, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial campus/community partnerships characterized by closeness, equity, and integrity. As a central hub connecting the campus to the community, the Center seeks to join with community and faith-based organizations, local schools, civic associations, and social action networks to form collaborative efforts to address issues of public concern.

News and Events

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  Spring into ServiceMSU students spend their spring break serving the community Wednesday March 29, 2023
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  University Announces $1 Million Grant to Develop Paterson One Square Mile InitiativeGeraldine R. Dodge Foundation support will be used to turn Eastside High School into University-assisted community school as part of comprehensive community development programFriday March 24, 2023
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  University Announces $5 Million Gift to Partner in Paterson Revitalization EffortsAlumnus Chuck Muth ’77 and wife, Laura, make transformational gift to create museum and learning center at Hinchliffe StadiumFriday March 24, 2023

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