Training session helps students and faculty prepare to build community
An interdisciplinary group of faculty, students and community members used a recent quiet afternoon to brush up on their community engagement skills.
Vaishnavi Tripuraneni, assistant professor in UD’s Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, initiated a project in Wilmington, Delaware’s West Side neighborhood in partnership with grassroots organization Green for the Greater Good to inventory urban trees and assess community sentiment with the aim of informing future tree planting and maintenance strategies.
This summer, Tripuraneni will have the help of senior environmental science major Kyle Dennis, one of several University students working on tree-related projects in the city. The faculty leading these projects recognized the need to train students in the core inventory work and in how to work with communities.
“I didn’t want to send students out into the community—even if it’s just observing events—without understanding the nuances of community-based work and the historical ways that universities have extracted from communities with nothing in return,” said Tripuraneni. “I wanted students to be aware of how to listen, so that when they are out in the community, they’re representing not just themselves, but all of us working with them and the university, and that they know how to do this in a very ethical manner.”
Tripuraneni reached out to Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) Associate Director Leann Moore to develop a community-building training session for the undergraduate and graduate students, which would also serve as a refresher for the faculty researchers. The group was joined by Jamila Davey from Green for the Greater Good.
“Training is especially impactful when interdisciplinary groups with diverse perspectives come together,” said Moore. “Having a community member join us made this one unique and even more beneficial.”
“Providing on-demand, individualized training to our students colleagues is one facet of CEI’s strategic efforts to reinforce the University’s identity as an engaged research university and as a trusted community partner,” said Chief Community Engagement Officer Michael Vaughan, who serves as CEI’s faculty director.
To schedule a customized training session, members of the University community are encouraged to reach out to CEI at BlueHensEngage@udel.edu at least three weeks in advance.
Note: Additional faculty involved in the training include Anna Wik and Tara Trammell, associate professors, and James Zimmerman, assistant professor, all in the Department of Plant and Soil Science.