LEWISTON – Community partners, students, faculty and staff gathered at USM’s Lewiston Auburn College recently to celebrate the community work the college has engaged in and to plan community engagement projects for the coming year.

Termed “service learning,” academically applied community engagement is the highlight of many students’ college careers. Service learning usually involves students working with community agencies on projects, which allow the application of course-related material in a practical and positive manner.

Students work with community agencies on tangible products, such as building facilities, as well as relational assets, such as facilitating collaboration, providing greater support to agency staff and organizing grassroots community action around issues of concern.

As the community work is undertaken, students are supervised in the building of their practical skills, as well as in the critical analysis of the context of their work. Such service learning projects usually require extensive reflection and integration of student experiences into classroom content and processes as well.

USM/L-A provides an extensive array of service learning opportunities to students at the college, as well as in the comprehensive and long-standing relationships it has with its community partners.

Representatives from more than 35 community partner agencies, from preschool programs to services for seniors, attended the annual breakfast event where participants were presented opportunities to network with other community agencies as well as to collaboratively plan innovative projects.

Among the attendees were representative from Sen. Susan Collins’ and Congressman Mike Michaud’s offices as well as representatives from nearly all the major mental health, child care, youth outreach, higher education and immigration programs in the area.

Attendees heard of the projects undertaken by USM/L-A students during the past year, including a hunger mapping project of the Lewiston area, youth programs designed and staffed by USM/L-A students, occupational therapy projects with young children, the organization of a grassroots effort to support the Opportunity Maine campaign, numerous internships in social service agencies and a recent trip to China to learn about China’s orphans. In addition, awards were presented to outstanding community partners and students for their work during the past year.

Sandcastle Preschool Program Foundation (Sandcastle) was recognized as an outstanding USM/L-A community partner. Sandcastle supports the healthy development of all children at their early education center located in Lewiston’s enterprise district.

The mission of Sandcastle is to provide early education and developmental services to young children who are typically developing as well as to young children with special needs. All children are included in the same environment and guided in their growth by a range of early childhood professionals.

As a nonprofit enterprise providing early education, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physical therapy and developmental therapy, Sandcastle has multiple avenues of collaboration for community partners.

Through the past decade Sandcastle has provided numerous opportunities for USM/L-A students by hosting joint child care ventures through a federally funded child care grant; providing internship positions for undergraduate social and behavioral science students and graduate students in occupational therapy; participating in classroom education; hosting research projects; and providing direct care to students’ children and employment for USM students.