The Center for Faith & Public Life (CFPL) seeks an energetic, collaborative, and committed leader with a passion for community engagement to serve as Associate Director of the Center for Faith and Public Life for Service Learning. Recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top programs in the country, Service Learning at Fairfield University brings together faculty, students, staff, and community partners – local and global – to advance the common good.
The Associate Director will be responsible for all dimensions of service learning, specifically:
Leading faculty development: The Associate Director collaborates with the Faculty Chair of Service Learning to coordinate the Service Learning Advisory Committee; recruit faculty participation in service learning; facilitate professional development for faculty, including an annual cohort-based course development grant program; and provide ongoing course development and support to faculty. The Associate Director will also work with appropriate University leaders to identify strategies for recognizing community engagement in University rewards structures.
Building community partnerships: The Associate Director will work to maintain long-standing relationships with community partners while fostering and stewarding new partnerships of strategic importance. This will require presence in the community for meetings and events in order to stay in-tune to local issues. While a majority of service-learning courses are engaged with local communities, a growing number of courses are engaged globally. The Associate Director will work with faculty and Study Abroad to coordinate the unique logistic and community partnership development aspects of global service learning.
Developing socially responsible student leaders: The Associate Director will recruit Service Learning Associates (SLA), provide them with ongoing support and professional development, and assess their development as leaders. Student leaders are essential to the coordination of high quality service-learning courses. The SLA program develops students as leaders so that they can work alongside faculty teaching service-learning courses to help facilitate communication with community partners, student engagement, and course logistics.
Collaborating for social justice: The Associate Director will collaborate with key departments such as Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, Student Engagement, Center for Academic Excellence, Study Abroad, Campus Ministry, Residence Life, and the Academic and Career Development Center, to prepare students for service learning and to help them apply experiences to their ongoing personal, professional, and spiritual growth and development. Additionally, our service-learning program aims to strengthen our institutional capacity ? through course, faculty, and student leadership development ? to build racial understanding and critical reflection on issues of power and privilege.
Advancing the broader field: To connect Fairfield’s work with the broader field of community engagement, the Associate Director will serve as liaison and representative to service-learning professional associations including CT Campus Compact, IARSLCE, and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and University Service Learning Directors group. The Associate Director will contribute to the marketing of service learning and will work with the director to fundraise.
Located within Academic Affairs, Service Learning at Fairfield was founded as a central element of the CFPL in 2005 as a way of animating the Jesuit Catholic mission of the University through academic community engagement. Since then, over 45 service-learning courses have been developed by faculty across the disciplines, engaging 800+ students and 30+ community partners each year. The Center seeks to build from this solid base to strengthen service-learning practice by focusing on strategic partnerships and working with departments and programs to integrate community engagement into the curriculum of majors and minors with an eye toward sustainability.
Requirements:
- A Master’s degree is required.
- A minimum of 5 years of professional experience is required, preferably related to service learning and/or community-engagement. Experience working within higher education is preferred, however, relevant background in community-based work will be valued and strongly considered.
- Knowledge of community engagement as an educational practice and commitment to social justice and diversity are required. Demonstrated verbal and written communication skills are required, as well as exceptional interpersonal, organizational and leadership skills.