Community Engagement Opportunities
As a UNO student, community engagement activities provide you with diverse ways to achieve your education while building your resume and networking in the community. Here’s some examples:
- Taking a class that brings you out into the community to complete your coursework (service learning or community-based learning)
- Volunteering and Civic Engagement
- Capstone projects/research involving a community organization
Service Learning Academy
Service learning is an experiential, collaborative method of teaching that incorporates community projects that promote academic learning. These projects are directly linked to academic curriculum and meet community-identified needs while engaging students in their community and provide real-world context to coursework. As such, service learning course "classrooms" often exist in the community and engage community partners (such as nonprofit organizations, business, governmental agencies, and P-12 schools) as co-teachers. Throughout the course students reflect on their experiences, consider the relationship to their reading and research, relevance to community growth, and impact on their personal values, development, and professional skills.
Every semester, there are a variety of courses in all UNO colleges that use service learning as a method of instruction. By choosing a service learning course, students can:
•Apply textbook knowledge to the real world and engage with homework
•Use and develop strengths
•Discover new skills & talents
•Explore their leadership style
•Learn to communicate with others and work in teams
•Sharpen skills that employers want such as problem solving, critical thinking, innovation, and creativity
•Explore the assets in the community
•Build their résumé
To search for service learning courses, choose service learning under the Program tab in the class search function.
To explore service learning course options and project examples, please visit sla.unomaha.edu.
Volunteer and Civic Engagement Programs
Volunteer Opportunities for Students
Each year, UNO organizes and sponsors annual Signature Service Days and volunteer events that students can participate in. As student volunteers, you engage in service projects that focus on some of the most imprtant issue areas facing the community. These opportunities help you gain valuable skills and connections that you can utilize in different ways (i.e., interviewing, references, and more).
Here’s a list of annual Signature Service Days and events:
- MLK Jr. Day of Service
- Seven Days of Service
- Earth Day of Service
- International AIDS Day of Service
- 60 Minutes of Service
You can learn more about volunteer opportunities and events at serve.unomaha.edu.
Civic Engagement Opportunities
Civic Engagement allows students to address the social and cultural issues within our society. There are many ways for students to be civically engaged and UNO has a long history of being a top university in the nation in getting students registered to vote and participating in the process. Beyond this, students have opportunities to have meaningful dialogue with their peers and public officials on what it means to advocate, how government operates, and opportunities to engage in civic learning such as the annual “I Love NU Day” at the Nebraska state capitol. Civic Engagement opportunities for students bring life to why we serve and help students to gain valuable experience and skills in communication, collaboration, and how to be change agents while at UNO and beyond. Some examples of forma; ways to be civically engaged are:
- Taking advantage of Americorps VISTA opportunities
- Participating in domestic/international service and humanitarian efforts by serving in the Peace Corps
Community Engaged Scholarship Transcript Designation (CESTD)
The CESTD is a transcript designation that documents and recognizes undergraduate students for their community engagement experiences. This designation offers incentive and competitive edge for students who choose to tailor their involvement and academic work in a way that capitalizes on UNO’s comparative advantage.
• Completion of 1 community based-learning experience (3 credit hours)
• Completion of 6 hours of service-learning coursework
• Completion of 135 volunteer/community service hours (outside of the classroom)
• Completion of written reflection piece (one for each category along with a final reflection).
• Minimum 3.0 Cumulative GPA at graduation
Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center (CEC)
As a metropolitan university, UNO encourages its students to be active and civically engaged members and leaders in a diverse and evolving society. The CEC is a unique place where UNO students can access volunteer opportunities, service events, service learning inquiries, service learning projects and events, student jobs and internships, and community engagement-based events. The CEC is home to over 35 university and community building partner organizations that work side by side in flexible office spaces to improve the quality of life for those they serve.
Learn more at cec.unomaha.edu/contact