Graduate Student Preparation in SLCE

Join us at IARSLCE 2026!

Graduate Student Preparation in SLCE (SIG Session)
October 11, 2026 | Concurrent II: Roundtables | 3:45-4:45 | Monroe 628

This Special Interest Research Group (SIG) welcomes scholars and practitioners who are interested in the preparation of graduate students for service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) teaching, research and practice. The SIG will provide support for scholars who are interested in conducting research on graduate-level SLCE. It will also support practitioners who are interested in building research-informed programs to train future engaged scholars and Community Engaged Professionals. Graduate students are welcome and encouraged to share their insights, interests and experience.

Programs, Practices, and Possibilities for Community-Engaged Graduate Education
October 12, 2026 | Concurrent VI: Roundtables | 3:45-4:45 | Monroe 317

The two presenters are part of a group of practitioners in community-engaged graduate education programs which is involved in a collaborative writing project developing an edited volume for publication. In alphabetical order all the authors contributing to the said writing project are Samantha Bernstein-Sierra, Lucas Díaz, Susan Harris, Ryan McBride, Diana Soto-Olson, Elaine Ward, Nicole Williams, and Meghan Zulian.

The writing project will seek out perspectives in a three-part exploration as follows:

1) A landscape overview: information about the emergence and current landscape of graduate preparation for community-engaged work.

2) Successful strategies: field stories and program cases that demonstrate how this work has been sustained, particularly in contexts of limited institutional support.

3) Future directions: forward-looking frameworks for more durable, institutionalized graduate CES preparation.

The raison d'être for the project is the representation of diverse perspectives by practitioners in SLCE graduate education. The working group has met regularly for nearly a year and studied three datasets. The project emerged from a long process of conversations and information sharing identifying challenges and adjustments within many SLCE graduate programs whose configurations continue shifting while persisting advocating for a place in the future of graduate education through SLCE.

In the roundtable, the authors will speak about the experience of working together with collaborators across the country and across program configurations and experiences. They will also share preliminary findings and talk about some of contributions to their upcoming publication. The audience will be invited to participate with story telling and facilitated discussion.