Engagement Resources
Let's work together to make a positive change
The Office of Engagement helps guide Virginia Tech students, faculty, staff, and community partners to work together to help navigate the world’s most difficult problems while raising awareness of engaged scholarship across campus.
Engagement Leadership Council
The council, which includes college associate deans with outreach responsibilities and universitywide outreach directors, discusses engagement projects, the scholarship of engagement, program development and collaborations, and potential funding opportunities.
For Faculty & Staff
The Engagement Scholarship Consortium is an educational organization composed of higher education member institutions, including Virginia Tech.
ESC's goal is to work collaboratively to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship and designed to help build community capacity.
The Community Change Collaborative (CCC) examines the methods, frameworks, and forces shaping community development, approaches to community engagement, and how to build sustainable, cross-sectoral partnerships. CCC meets weekly as a group to explore theories and methods critically, which often leads to lively, educational discussions that inform our professional and personal development.
Interested graduate students, doctoral candidates, and faculty are invited to collaborate on community development projects, to explore theories, methods and approaches to community change, and to share lessons learned from past programs and experiences. Members represent a variety of disciplines.
Annually, the Commission on Outreach and International Affairs (COIA) Awards Committee reviews submitted packets and selects one faculty member and one team that demostrate excellence in outreach.
Grants are now available to sustain established courses or programs or conceive new ones at a slower pace:
- The Research and Assessment Grant will support graduate assistants to assess student learning and community outcomes. VT Engage also offers professional development in research methods and assessment skills as part of this grant.
- The Peer Mentor Grant will fund an undergraduate or graduate assistantship to coordinate programming among community partners or provide other support functions.
- The Seed Grant will help faculty design a community-based learning program at a slower pace than the development grant since full implementation is not required.
Interested faculty can find details about the application process at the VT Engage Faculty Fellows site.
For Students
VT Engage's mission is to facilitate leadership, service learning, and civic engagement experiences for Virginia Tech students to advance community priorities, contribute to student development, and embody Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). VT Engage develops and maintains mutually beneficial partnerships with community and campus partners that advance community-identified priorities through ethical and sustainable action. It serves as a connection point between community and campus partners.
For Communities
Virginia Cooperative Extension was established in 1914 and is a partnership between Virginia’s two land-grant universities: Virginia Tech and Virginia State University.
Today, Extension operates out of 107 offices, 11 Agricultural Research and Extension centers, and six 4-H centers across the commonwealth. Its agents, specialists, and volunteers work to assist farmers, empower youth, guide responsible resource management, and advance the wellbeing of all Virginians.
The Community Design Assistance Center (CDAC) is an outreach center in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design that employs students and provides planning and design assistance to communities and non-profit organizations throughout Virginia.
- No matter where you are in the commonwealth, our network of outreach facilities can connect you to the expertise and vast resources of Virginia Tech. The centers are located in:
- Roanoke.
- Richmond.
- Newport News.
- Abingdon.
The center provides research and university connections to organizations and communities, helping you to think strategically and find your pathway to economic prosperity.
The Community Change Collaborative (CCC) examines the methods, frameworks, and forces shaping community development, approaches to community engagement, and how to build sustainable, cross-sectoral partnerships. Our interdisciplinary research interests range from the local to the international, applying a variety of qualitative and mixed methods approaches to connect theory and practice for the benefit of our graduate student and faculty members, community partners, practitioners, and researchers interested in community change.
K-12 Educational Resources
The Center for Educational Networks and Impacts (CENI) promotes collaboration across our region, the commonwealth, and the nation in outreach and engagement, research and evaluation, and partnership and advocacy.
The Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech is committed to collaborating with rural communities in and around Southwest Virginia to ensure equitable K–12 educational experiences, increase college and career access, improve availability of the latest technologies, and invest in local enterprises. The center integrates knowledge from across disciplines to bring greater attention to the talents and needs of rural schools and communities.
A variety of STEM focused programming and events are held across campus and beyond.
Part lab, part makerspace, this one-day field trip fosters creativity and collaboration along with critical STEM skills.
Virginia Tech TRIO Programs provides cultural and academic support to eligible participants in greater Southwest Virginia to help them pursue and obtain postsecondary education.
About 70 percent of Virginia’s public school divisions have sent administrators to the School Leaders Institute's two programs since they began in 2005 to learn from veteran school leaders.