Miami University
PAE-19: Community Sustainability Partnerships

The Office of Community Engagement and Service serves as a catalyst for mutually beneficial campus and community partnerships, engaging communities through actions ranging one-time service projects, ongoing service projects, service learning, work study, and engaged research. A number of these activities are sustainability related. The Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute is committed to the development of "ethical and character leadership for a changing world" and the exploration of transformational leadership with the goal of developing graduates prepared to effect positive change in their organizations and communities. It offer leadership opportunities outside the classroom that allows students, staff and faculty to explore their leadership identities while positively impacting the Miami community. In recent years it sponsored community engagement "think tanks" that recruited a cohort of students to collaborate with community partners in solving environmental and social problems. The most recent project was "Shaping Sustainable Communities," which created a sustainable development plan for the City of Oxford, Ohio. ShareFest Oxford is a service and environmental event dedicated to the collection and redistribution of items donated by Miami University students at the end of the academic year. Collected items benefit residents in need and social service agencies throughout the region.