Overview
Five centers of learning at Elizabethtown College – the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking, the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and the Bowers Writers House – add depth and uniqueness to our academic program and broaden the institution’s appeal to a wider audience.
The Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking provides a variety of opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students both in and out of the classroom, at home and abroad. The Center for Community and Civic Engagement creates civic engagement experiences to provide opportunities to more fully explore the meaning of our motto “Educate for Service” in today’s increasingly global society. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning is a resource center and educational forum for developing new modes of learning for our students. The Young Center peripherally touches our students through the speakers it hosts, the resources it brings to our classrooms, and the lectures it offers on our campus. The Bowers Writers House is an interdisciplinary venue for presentation, performance, expression and study.
Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking
The Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking advances curricular and co-curricular programs to enhance global understanding and non-violent conflict transformation. The Center also brings together two interdisciplinary programs, International Studies and Asian Studies and is the home of the Ware Colloquium for Global Citizenship and Peacemaking, an endowed program that includes the Ware Lecture on Peacemaking and the Ware Seminars on Global Citizenship.
The Center creates opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to develop into global citizens who are knowledgeable about global issues, empathetic towards people of other cultures and nationalities, and committed to the values of peace, human dignity, and social justice.
The College’s approach to global citizenship is distinctive, owing to our particular mission and heritage. In keeping with the Brethren faith of our founders, Elizabethtown’s mission declares that “the College affirms the values of peace, nonviolence, human dignity, and social justice and seeks to make those values manifest in the global community,” consistent with our motto to “Educate for Service.” The Center’s mission affirms the values of the College and frames international engagement as a commitment to peace, service, and cultural understanding.
Every year, the Center organizes a variety of trips, activities, lectures, and events to enable students to more fully explore the practice of and their commitment to peace. The Center’s Ambassador-in-Residence manages external and international partnerships. Since spring 2007, the Ware Lecture on Peacemaking has brought world leaders, including several Nobel Laureates, to campus to engage students, faculty, and staff on issues of global peace and justice.
For more information, please visit the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking website at www.etown.edu/centers/global.
Center for Community and Civic Engagement
The Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) provides opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage and deepen their involvement through service in local, national, and international contexts. Reciprocal relationships with local organizations are the foundation of these efforts. The CCCE is the administrative home for the College’s curricular and co-curricular service-related initiatives.
Community-Based Learning (CBL) is a core component of the College-wide Signature Learning Experience initiative. In CBL courses, students and faculty engage with dozens of community organizations on projects of mutual benefit. CBL provides students opportunities to apply knowledge and skills from the classroom to analyze and address issues facing the local community. The CCCE facilitates, maintains, and evaluates these partnerships, and provides guidance about best practices in CBL pedagogy.
The CCCE offers a wide variety of co-curricular programs for students each year, including Community Service Work Study, ongoing volunteer projects, mentoring and after-school programs (including the Moving Forward Together Program with the Milton Hershey School), and other service initiatives. Annual campus-wide events, such as Into the Streets, provide opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage in direct service. Regular service trips are conducted in partnership with local, national, and international relief and development agencies. Across campus, there are frequent and focused service efforts of student clubs, organizations, and Student Directed Learning Communities.
The CCCE is also engaged in documenting and reporting on service and community engagement efforts from across the College. Elizabethtown College has been selected for the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll – recognizing the efforts our College community makes in building a culture of service and civic engagement – every year that the designation has been available. In 2020, Elizabethtown College received the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Community Engagement Classification, demonstrating alignment of mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement.
For more information, please visit the Center for Community and Civic Engagement website at www.etown.edu/centers/community-civic.
Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies
The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies is an internationally recognized scholarly institute that fosters the research and interpretation of Anabaptist and Pietist groups and connects the college to an international network of scholars. Integral to the academic life of Elizabethtown College, the Young Center’s faculty members teach undergraduate courses and conduct research on the life, culture, and beliefs of Anabaptists and Pietists, primarily in the North American context. Interpretive programs open to the general public include evening lectures and seminars during the academic year, exhibits, and occasional conferences.
Located on Elizabethtown College’s Lake Placida, the Young Center is named for Dr. Galen S Young, D.O., and Jessie M. Young and includes the Bucher Meetinghouse, named for long-time college trustee Rufus P. Bucher, and the Bowers Interpretive Gallery, named for Kenneth Bowers and Rosalie Bowers. The Young Center holds a unique collection of Amish-related publications and a small rare book collection related to Anabaptist and Pietist groups.
The Young Center brings visiting scholars to campus for a semester of research and writing in Anabaptist and Pietist studies by offering the Snowden Fellowship and the Kreider Fellowship. The Fellows present the Snoweden Fellow Lecture and the Kreider Fellow Lecture each year. A doctoral fellowship is also available for doctoral students who are researching or writing about topics related to Anabaptism and Pietism. Fellows come to the Young Center from diverse backgrounds from across the nation and around the world.
The Young Center works with Johns Hopkins University Press to publish Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, a book series for which Senior Scholar Steven M. Nolt serves as editor.
Each year the Center presents the Dale Brown Book Award for the book designated by a panel of independent judges as the best new book in Anabaptist or Pietist studies. The Center also sponsors the annual Durnbaugh Lectures, which feature a distinguished scholar who advances Anabaptist and Pietist studies.
For more information, please call (717) 361-1470 or visit the Young Center website at www.etown.edu/centers/young-center.
Teaching and Learning Design Studio
The Elizabethtown College Teaching and Learning Design Studio, located in Nicarry 114, promotes and supports a relationship- and learner-centered culture of instruction, guidance, and scholarship, with focus on evidence-based pedagogies from the scholarship of teaching and learning that foster student academic engagement, advance the College’s mission, and cultivate innovative teaching. Its core functions are: promoting a campus-wide mindset of innovation, growth, and pedagogical inquiry; championing interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration and diversity in all its dimensions across curricular and co-curricular activities; diversifying the College’s modality of teaching and learning through use of leading-edge technology and course redesign; and creating and promoting new technological assets, providing necessary training, and assisting faculty with the creation of blended, online, and adaptable courses and curricula that are suitable for an ever-changing world. The Studio supports the integrated professional development of faculty, staff, and students by providing opportunities and resources applicable to all stages of the career trajectory. The Studio recognizes and celebrates teaching successes; promotes the sharing of best practices in pedagogy; conducts workshops; offers individual and programmatic consulting; and supports the activities of College Schools, Centers, and Programs. The Studio also houses a library of teaching and learning resources.
For more information, please email studio@etown.edu.
Bowers Writers House
Since 2010, Bowers Writers House has offered an interdisciplinary variety of programming, involving scholars from all genres of study. In our first five years, we’ve hosted over 200 historians, mathematicians, musicians, genetic scientists, linguists, poets, actors, playwrights, and national and international activists and humanists. And in those three years of activity Bowers Writers House has seen over 250 events and over 1,500 visitors. We look forward to contributing to the on and off-campus communities of Elizabethtown College for years to come, including a variety of summer programming for 14-17 year olds.
Because written communication – whether it be fiction, poetry, drama, essay, or nonfiction – colors the way people visualize the world, each academic program at Elizabethtown College relies on effective writing to inform, educate, enlighten and entertain. Our College has a firm commitment to fostering effective writing and encouraging intellectual dialogue that crosses academic boundaries. Illustrative of this commitment is Elizabethtown College’s creation of Bowers Writers House, designed to provide thought-provoking opportunities for the faculty, staff, and students from our 40+ majors as well as members of the Lancaster County community.
For more information, please call (717) 689-3945 or visit the Bowers Writers House website at www.etown.edu/centers/writershouse.
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