Post authored by Emily Shields, Executive Director of Iowa Campus Compact and Mandi McReynolds, Director, Community Engagement & Service-Learning, Drake University

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line; yet, pathways to careers and research on the field of community engagement follow a winding and hilly road. When you ask most people how they got to where they are, you get some version of a familiar, serendipitous, “I fell into it” story. For sustained institutionalization of service-learning and community engagement, we advocate for offices and staffing to support institutions committed to this work and meeting their civic purpose. For recognition such as Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement and the Higher Education President’s Community Service Honor Roll, we are asked to show institutional commitment including staffing, but there is no map to support individuals once they fill this role.

Even without a clear map, over the past 20 years staffing for community engagement and research has expanded. The road to becoming a community engagement professional has become more direct and has more travelers looking for positions. Graduate students and other young professionals are recognizing this as their vocational calling, graduate and undergraduate practicum and assistantship experiences being requested of community engagement offices, and job openings are being filled by individuals who specifically went to school to work in higher education community engagement. During a recent conference presentation on this topic, we asked the room of attendees to raise their hand if they’d served in AmeriCorps and more than half did. When McReynolds left her prior institution, her position was filled by an individual who had done graduate work specifically in higher education service-learning.

To respond to these developments we must begin to develop the map and conduct research on the profession. In Diving Deep in Community Engagement: A Model for Professional Development (McReynolds and Shields, 2015) we seek to present a framework for the support and development of these professionals. We present four spheres of skills and knowledge and three overarching areas that we think are critical to success. The three overarching areas are Education, Reflection, and Communication. The four spheres are Organizational Manager, Institutional Strategic Leader, Community Innovator, and Field Contributor. We offer ideas for action, reflection questions, resources, case studies, and critical responses to help readers think about their own growth.

But of course, suggesting a framework is just the beginning to “mapping” the profession. To recruit new professionals and support existing ones, we must consider other strategies to elevate the profession of higher education community engagement. Campus Compact has long been a leader in providing professional development opportunities. We should continue to bolster these opportunities. We should also consider how to support hiring managers in crafting positions and candidates in finding the right fit. In Research on Service Learning Clayton, Bringle, and Hatcher (2013) outline research related to community partners, faculty, students, and institutionalization, but no research is included that is directly on the community engagement professionals who do this work. Our future success depends on finding the keeping the best leaders for this movement. Let’s continue to work together to draw the maps needed to support community engagement professionals.

Purchase a copy of Diving Deep in Community Engagement: A Model for Professional Development for yourself or a colleague: http://www.iacampuscompact.org/diving-deep-publication.html