Community Engagement Associate Program

Supporting community-engaged teaching and scholarly practice

The Community Engagement Associates (CEA) program is a key funding support of community engagement at IUPUI. This program recognizes that the core of community-engaged work is relational work—work that takes time to build and work that cannot be done by individuals alone. Community-engaged faculty and staff may receive funding to employ students to provide support for courses, programs, or projects that advance the community-engagement mission of IUPUI in any of the following ways:

  • Is done in a mutually beneficial partnership with the community in both curricular and co-curricular spaces
  • Is innovative, emergent, and forward thinking in the field of community engagement
  • Supports the innovative use of community engagement pedagogy to deepen student learning (e.g., international service learning, community-based/engaged participatory research, online service learning, graduate level service learning)
  • Advances or increases the knowledge base around civic learning, civic-mindedness, or community engagement more broadly
  • Builds the capacity of departments/units to increase and to implement opportunities for community engagement or community engaged learning
  • Is equity-minded in its principles towards community engagement

Communicator

  • Convey ideas effectively and ethically in oral, written, and visual forms across public, private, interpersonal, and team settings, using face-to-face and mediated channels
  • Describe the value of being involved in service or other forms of community engagement

Community contributor

  • Identify community or social issues that need to be addressed
  • Demonstrate evidence of respectful engagement with their own and other communities and cultures

Problem solver

  • Make connections among ideas and experiences

Program components

  • The CEA program offers a unique, high-impact faculty-led mentoring opportunity for students across disciplines. In our commitment to increase and ensure access to high-impact practices from students of all backgrounds, especially Black students, Latinx students, American Indian/Alaska Native students, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students, first-generation students, and students from underrepresented groups. We encourage you to take a culturally inclusive approach to recruitment of students for this experience. Please share your opportunity broadly, and please intentionally encourage a diverse pool of students, especially those with limited or no prior experience with community engagement, to apply for this experience. Consider where and how you recruit, utilizing a variety of platforms and spaces across campus. If we can be of any help in this process, please contact us at iel@iupui.edu 
  • Community-engaged faculty and staff (referred to as mentors throughout this page and in the application) may apply for CEA program funding once a year using the application link below. Applications will be open until March 15.
  • The application requires mentors to specify one of the following project durations:

Summer only: project will run during the upcoming summer term.
Academic year only: project will run during the next academic year.
One-full year: project will run during the upcoming summer term and the next academic year.

  • Students (graduate or undergraduate) may work up to 10 hours per week during the academic year (fall and spring semester) and up to 25 hours per week in the summer (summer term). All students will be paid hourly at $11–$13 per hour.
  • Mentors will be responsible for approving time sheets on a biweekly basis.

Program expectations

Step 1: Apply for CEA funding

Submit application

Step 2: Application review

A committee in CSL will review CEA application submissions. Applicants will be notified of their application status by April 1. The position description submitted by the mentor during the application process will be used to create a custom posting of the mentor’s opportunity in Handshake, the student employment portal for IUPUI. If selected for funding, the Institute for Engaged Learning will post position descriptions in Handshake on the following timeline:

  • Summer projects and full-year projects: position will be posted in Handshake immediately after funding award (early/mid April).  
  • Academic year projects: position will be posted in Handshake in mid-July.  

The mentor will receive an email from the Institute for Engaged Learning when the position is posted and students can begin applying through Handshake. The mentor will review applications in Handshake, conduct interviews, and make a hiring decision. Interview pools should have a minimum of three candidates. 

Step 3: Initiate hiring process 

Once a student is identified, the mentor will use the form below to initiate the hiring process with the Institute for Engaged Learning. The Institute for Engaged Learning will contact the identified student to begin the hiring process, which can take up to three or four weeks to complete.

The mentor and unit will receive an official email from the Division of Undergraduate Education Human Resources (DUE-HR) with the official hire and start date. The student may not begin employment until this official email from DUE-HR is received.  Please plan accordingly if your project is commencing soon.

Student identification form

Step 4: Orientation

Orientation resources for mentors and students are provided below.

Mentor supervising resources

Student employment resources

Terminate a student's employment

CEA spotlights

View projects, experiences, and highlights

Learn more