CSPL/CGST480 ENGAGED PROJECTS is a new 1-credit course in which students study a topic of their choice and produce a final project for a public audience. EPs respond to this critical moment in history by empowering students to connect their academic pursuits to what is happening in the world around them. They deepen student learning and self-reflection, ease the undeniable challenges of online learning, and introduce students to their own agency and positionality in society. Full details are at https://www.wesleyan.edu/patricelli/engaged-projects.html.

Although the Engaged Projects course (CSPL/CGST480) is new, Wesleyan students have been doing this kind of academic work through other mechanisms for generations. Recent examples include:

• University Major in Interaction Design Zoe Reifel ’21 studied campus voter turnout and built a peer-to-peer chatbot tool that gave any student the ability to hold their friends accountable to vote –> Vote Bot
• Building upon 4+ years of research on socio-emotional learning, Natalie May ’18 MA ’19 created a professional development workshop for preschool teachers –>
  Mindfulness and Socioemotional Strategies Training (Teacher Resource Booklet)
• Interested in the growing wealth gap and intergenerational poverty in predominantly Black communities, Babila Fomuteh ’21 studied the systems that perpetuate these problems and built a financial literacy program that “helps young people understand the financial concepts not taught in typical classroom settings” –> Vital Financial
• Continuing engaged work started by Alex Garcia ’17, Noah Kahan ’19 collaborated with Middletown Area Transit, Middlesex Community College, and other stakeholders to revise local bus routes and make public transit more efficient and equitable. –> Connect Middletown

Questions? Contact Makaela Kingsley at mjkingsley@wesleyan.edu or by appointment at http://calendly.com/mjkingsley.