Stay up-to-date with the latest happenings, initiatives, and community involvement opportunities. Explore our diverse range of events, news articles, and updates as we strive to promote active citizenship and foster meaningful connections within our community. 

2024 MLK Day of Service

In the spirit and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., around 200 students, faculty, staff, and community members came together to work side-by-side and serve together in unity.

Highlighting the Student Supply Closet

Accessible from the door to the basement of Carnegie Hall (room CL008), the Student Supply Closet is a space designed to help any undergraduate and seminarian students access any items that they need and otherwise have limited access to. 

Advent 2023: Civic and Global Leadership Capstone Projects

During the Advent 2023 semester, students at Sewanee: The University of the South participated in their Civic and Global Leadership Capstone Projects. This diverse group of students undertook initiatives close to their hearts, showcasing a dedication to making a positive impact on both local and global communities.

Inaugural Faculty Fellows Named for Community Engaged Learning (CEL)

In partnership with the Office of Civic Engagement, the fellows will each teach a community engaged learning (CEL) course, design and implement a project to further CEL at Sewanee, and mentor a faculty member who will teach a CEL course in the next academic year. 

Philanthropy Interns Advance Local Nonprofits’ Community Impact Through Grants Making

In a special ceremony held at Convocation Hall on November 16th, students of the Philanthropy Internship Program awarded $30,000 in grant funding to local nonprofit organizations and government agencies.

From Sewanee to Selma: Identities, Stories, and Civic Engagement

During the fall 2023 semester, the Office of Civic Engagement, with support from the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation, offered a course in FYP. This new and different path for FYP  allowed students to not only take a deep look into Sewanee’s history but also to partner with the city of Selma, Alabama. 

Highlights from the VISTA Alumni Reunion

VISTA alums from across the country returned to the Mountain November 10th-12th to mark the end of a nine-year chapter: the sunset of the South Cumberland Plateau VISTA Project.

Advent 2023 Dinner & Dialogue Overview

Dinner & Dialogue continues to bring together students, seminarians, staff, and faculty for shared conversations about what we hold dear while creating space for meaningful connections with folks from across campus. Two events were held in the Advent 2023 semester, with nearly 50 members of the campus community in attendance at each dialogue. 

2023 South Cumberland Plateau AmeriCorps Make a Difference Day,

South Cumberland Plateau AmeriCorps members came together on Oct 28, 2023, in recognition of Make a Difference Day, to proudly participate as a community partner in Mountain T.O.P.’s annual Fall Festival, helping to provide shoes, coats, winter gear, and boots for children and families across the South Cumberland Plateau. 

Introducing Bonner and Canale Leaders for AY 2023-2024

The Office of Civic Engagement is pleased to introduce our new Bonners and Canales for the 2023-2024 academic year.

9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance

In honor of 9/11, the SCP AmeriCorps program observed a day of service and remembrance. SCP AmeriCorps members reached out across the plateau to support a variety of community endeavors. 

Sewanee Votes! Constitution Day Event

In commemoration of Constitution Day 2023, Sewanee Votes!, the Office of Civic Engagement’s voting initiative, hosted a “Dessert and Democracy” event where a group of 30 students engaged in conversation centered around individual’s values as they relate to the Constitution and our current political state in the US more broadly. 

2023-South Cumberland Summer Meal Program

The annual AmeriCorps Summer Program is a short-term, intensive ten-week community service program to directly support anti-poverty efforts on the Plateau, focusing on alleviating child hunger and reducing summer learning loss. 

Accidental Champion

Before studying abroad, Adri Silva, C’24, had never competed in gymnastics. But that didn’t stop her from joining her host university’s team in Ecuador and coming home with two medals from a major international competition.

Global Curiosity, Local Insights

Thanks to the Biehl International Research Fellowships, four Sewanee students spent the summer undertaking transformative research journeys across three continents.

Maggie’s Story

One student’s work in her hometown near Sewanee exemplifies the immeasurable impact a unique Sewanee service program has had on local communities and on the students who serve them.

Jim Peterman’s Vision for a Better World

For over two decades, the philosophy professor and (now former) director of the Office of Civic Engagement has been at the center of efforts to push Sewanee’s academic and co-curricular offerings out of the ivory tower and into the community, where they can make a real difference.

OCE Classroom-Community Symbiosis: Looking Forward and Back

For more than 10 years, the University Office of Civic Engagement has nurtured a unique classroom-community symbiotic relationship on the Plateau. Recently, founding director Philosophy Professor Jim Peterman stepped down passing the torch to Politics Professor Amy Patterson. What is the OCE? Where did it come from and where is it going?

Two Members of the Class of 2022 Awarded Watson Fellowship for 2022-23

Olivier Mbabazi (Bonner student leader) and Angus Pritchard have been awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for 2022-23.