Experiential Education at Colorado College Block 7 Faculty/Staff Newsletter

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Block 7 Week 2

Get on Board! Community Event through El Pomar 

Tuesday, Apr. 1 | 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Penrose House Garden Pavilion

The El Pomar Foundation is hosting an event where attendees can connect with nonprofit organizations and government boards showcasing service opportunities.

Block 8 Week 1

Celebrate Earth Week 2025

Apr. 21-25 | Varying Times and Locations

Join us, along with various offices, departments, and clubs, for a week of Earth Week fun and awareness. Check out the Calls to Action section to learn more.  

CCE’s Annual Senior Symposium 

Tuesday, Apr. 22 | 3-5 p.m.
Tutt Library 2nd Floor 

Graduating seniors from our civic leadership programs and Newman Civic Fellows present their community engagement and Capstone projects. See the Calls to Action section to learn more!

Are you interested in transitioning a course you are teaching this fall to community-engaged learning, but need community connections? If so, you are invited to participate in the Publicly Engaged Actionable Knowledge (PEAK) Project by filling out this brief interest form by the priority deadline at the end of Block 7 (Sunday, Apr. 20) with a final deadline at the end of Block 8 (Sunday, May 18). The PEAK Project bridges campus knowledge to community impact by connecting CC educators to nonprofit partners for community-engaged learning classroom projects.  

For a limited time, those who participate in the PEAK Project and are successfully “matched” will be eligible to receive project development stipends ($500 each for faculty and community partners) to honor the time, capacity, and thought-work that goes into developing new community-engaged learning projects. This funding is generously provided through the Bonner Foundation’s Community-Engaged Learning Initiative, through which the CCE received a grant. Funds will be offered until grant funding is exhausted. 

An October deadline for a Block Away Proposal may seem far off, but it will be here sooner than you think. Proposals for both Summer 2026 and Academic Year 2026-27 courses will be due in October, and with the summer quickly approaching, the time is now to meet with Global Education, flesh out your course plan, start developing a draft budget, and communicate with potential on-site partners. Global Education & Field Study is happy to help with this process. The deadline for all 2026 Summer Block Away Proposals on Summit is Friday, Oct. 3. The deadline for initial proposals for 2026-27 academic year Off-Campus Blocks is Friday, Oct. 31. 

CC Votes would like to remind all eligible voters that today, Apr. 1 is election day for the Colorado Springs General Municipal Election. This election will decide who will represent you on City Council. Ballots must be dropped in a Ballot Drop Box by 7 p.m. today. CC has a Ballot Drop box located outside of the Boettcher Center, near Loomis Hall. For more information on this election please visit the CC Votes page. 

The LACF initiative is currently seeking educators to teach courses in the 2025-26 academic year and beyond. The mission of the program is to address inequities in higher education by expanding access for incarcerated persons. Through the LACF, CC faculty and qualified staff offer for-credit courses at no cost in the Youthful Offenders System (YOS) facility in Pueblo, which serves a population of 19 to 25-year-olds. Students receive credit through Pueblo Community College (PCC), and courses are guaranteed to transfer as degree requirements at any Colorado public institution of higher learning. CC faculty or qualified staff receive a grant-funded stipend to teach evening courses (typically twice a week) over the course of a semester. Please visit the CCE website to express interest, or email Jordan Radke with questions. 

Global Education & Field Study continues to update and improve our online resources for faculty interested in taking students off campus. For faculty interested in developing an off-campus block (domestic or international) there is the Canvas course “Building a Block Away”, which focuses on the idea-to-proposal process, including CC policy and practice on course design, budgeting, and use of partner organizations or OPA (Off-Campus Program Assistants).  

For faculty with planned field experiences, Blocks away, or longer study away programs, there is also the Canvas course “Taking Academic Courses Off-Campus”, which is designed for faculty already scheduled for off-campus travel with their class. This course is required of all faculty who are leading students outside of El Paso County and contains policy, guidelines and advice around safety, health, risk management, and your role as a faculty leader of off-campus experiences. It must be completed before you lead your course off-campus, but is valid for the entire year. In addition to these resources, both Drew Cavin (Field & Domestic Travel) and Allen Bertsche (Block Away & International Travel) are happy to walk through the travel plan development process, review college requirements and expectations, or just help you brainstorm about ways to maximize the experiential education potential of your course and its off-campus components.  

If you have already taken the course, please note that there are two important updates related to developments in laws and regulations related to domestic travel (I.D. requirements, etc.). Please check the latest update in the course for the Accessibility and Risk Assessment sections.  

Every year, graduating seniors from some of our civic leadership programs and our Newman Civic Fellow present their Presentations of Learning to reflect on their community engaged experiences and Capstone projects in a conference style event on the 2nd floor of the Tutt Library. Here’s a sneak peak of this year’s presentation schedule. We hope that you can join us.

Get ready to celebrate Earth Week! Planned is a full schedule of events, kicking off on Monday, Apr. 21, and running throughout the week. Visit the Earth Week webpage to learn more about each event. Below are some event highlights, with more details to come throughout Block 7. 

Student Information
We encourage you to review the student newsletter and pass along opportunities that align with your students’ interests and goals. Thank you for your continued support of CC students!