Carleton College Center for Community and Civic Engagement

02/03/2026

Each year we take time to appreciate our CCCE Community Partners. This event celebrates the work we do together to engage in inclusive, sustainable, reciprocal relationships that foster student learning and faculty development, fulfill community identified needs, and promote an equitable and peaceful society. Our community is richer for these partnerships. This year our partners had the opportunity to hear from Nonoko Sato, trustee and Carleton class of 2000, the President and CEO of the Minnesota Council for Nonprofits.

01/19/2026

Recently FiftyNorth and Carleton students gathered for a knitting series at the Weitz, led by local knitting instructor Diane Pearsall. FiftyNorth is a local org and community space for senior citizens in Northfield. This class was organized by CCCE Fellow Annika Gursky. They used natural wool from The Layzee Farmer, and they heard from Jennifer Therbold, the farmer who made the yarn. She shared stories about her experiences as a shepherdess, sustainable farming, and animal husbandry.

12/05/2025

Faribault High School's YPAR work this summer was part of a 2022-2025 grant from the AmeriCorps Office of Research and Evaluation. Carleton College’s three year project, “Using YPAR insights to transform school policies and practices,” built on the youth participatory action research (YPAR) methodology and networks developed through the 2018 Community Conversations AmeriCorps grant. This three-year grant funded youth research projects, staff professional development around YPAR, and networking opportunities across seven different sites in Minnesota: Brooklyn Center Community Schools; Carleton College; Faribault Public Schools; Rochester Public Schools; St. Anthony/New Brighton Middle School; St. Louis Park Public Schools; and YoUthROC/University of Minnesota. The two grants also funded a participatory action research website that has information in English, Hmong, Spanish and Somali.

When four high school students took the microphone at Monday night’s school board meeting, they didn’t come to talk about grades or sports — they came to talk about changing

12/02/2025

The course Deep Mapping, taught by Austin Mason, was an Academic Civic Engagement class that received a community collaboration grant from the CCCE to work with Rice County Historical Society this fall. The Alexander Faribault house holds iconic history that tells the tale of the city, but access remains limited for some, from those who live too far away to those unable to climb its stairs. The Carleton students in this class spent fall term trying to change that, improving the accessibility of information about the house, even creating a virtual tour so some can “visit” without leaving home.

The Alexander Faribault house holds iconic history that tells the tale of our old city, but access remains limited for some, from those who live too far away to those

10/27/2025

Thanks to Carleton College Center for Community and Civic Engagement for committing volunteers to help with our fall invasive species removals. If you weren't able to help today, we also have the following dates/times available: Monday, 10/27 4-5:30; Mon, 11/3 3:30-5; Mon 11/10 3:30-5. Sign up https://www.signupgenius.com/index.cfm?go=w.manageSignUp #/59528258/design/

03/13/2025

At the end of February, the CCCE hosted the annual Community Partner Appreciation Luncheon, bringing together over 50 community partners from 35 local organizations and co-curricular programs in Northfield and greater Rice County. The group heard remarks from Laura Hartpence, director of the Career Center, about the ways community-engaged learning experiences can set a strong foundation for students’ future endeavors. The event recognized the many different ways that partner organizations offer those opportunities, in addition to being a welcome occasion to visit and catch up about one another's work. In the words of one guest, “The intermingling among community partners was priceless, as was hearing their stories.”

01/07/2025

We're excited to announce the new Eric and Mimi Carlson Prize for Excellence in Community Collaboration! This award recognizes an individual or group of students (sophomore or above) for being highly effective contributors to a community engagement or civic engagement collaboration during their time at Carleton. Nominators can be community partners, students, staff, and faculty. For more information, and link to the nomination form, click below.

11/08/2024

On October 28, students in the “Greek Drama in Performance” ACE course participated in the “Activating Social Justice through the Arts” workshop facilitated by the Minneapolis-based Pangea World Theater. During the workshop, the students had the opportunity to explore how story circles and movement can deepen our understanding of ourselves and our world. The workshop’s post-colonial approach resonates deeply with the course, where students reflect on theater’s power to drive social change. In this class, students consider how ancient plays and modern adaptations bring issues of social justice and positionality into focus, and the Pangea workshop was a powerful reminder of how art shapes and challenges our view of humanity. Students reflecting on their participation in the workshop mentioned among other things that this was one of their most impactful class experiences at Carleton and that it allowed them to think deeply about the intersections between the plays studied in class and today’s world.

10/31/2024

On Saturday, October 26th students from Cheryl Yin’s Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) course, Southeast Asian Migration and Diasporic Communities (SOAN 125.00), spent the day exploring local SEAn (Southeast Asian) communities. First they visited Watt Munisotaram, a Buddhist temple on 40 acres in Hampton, MN. They continued up to St Paul, where they visited the HmongTown Marketplace, XIA Gallery, and the Little Mekong neighborhood. The field trip was a great extension of their in-class learning, where they’ve been gaining an understanding the social, political, and historical circumstances that have led to SEA migration, as well as examining how their communities have adapted to life in the U.S.

The ACE project is a partnership with Southeast Asian Diaspora (SEAD) Project. Students are building a resource library for Southeast Asian immigrants in Minnesota related to culturally responsive housing, legal aid, medical assistance and more.

10/29/2024

CCCE Associate Director Emily Seru recently interviewed Professor of English and American Studies Adriana Estill about her reflections on a new Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) course designed over two years…

08/29/2024

On August 20th we hosted Cracking the Code on College Partnerships, a workshop for local community partners to learn more about academic civic engagement opportunities with both Carleton and St Olaf Colleges. We had a great discussion with the group of 20 attendees, and we look forward to the next workshop on Wed, Sept 25th at St Olaf College! For more information and to register for the upcoming event: https://forms.gle/QCsxh6RCqsiXpDK47

06/21/2024

And that’s a wrap for lighten up. If you are not already here do not come down to the stadium. Closing early due to flooding