Community Engagement
Community Engagement
Community Engagement is the bridge that connects the Washington and Lee campus to surrounding communities. Students get hands-on experience and contribute to the greater good by collaborating, learning, and growing together with the community in mutually beneficial ways.
Community engagement complements and enhances learning that takes place in the classroom, providing an opportunity for students to connect with the larger world, find meaning, and make an impact. It’s also where many students discover their personal, professional, or civic identity and find a sense of purpose.
By the Numbers
- The W&L community logged 28,465 hours of service to the local community in the 21-22 Academic Year.
- 73% of graduating 2022 seniors believed that because of their community-engagement experiences, they had a personal responsibility to use what they have learned to improve society.
- 77% of graduating 2022 seniors believed that because of their community engagement experiences, they felt confident that they will be able to apply what they have learned to work towards solving real world problems in society.
- 80% of faculty believe that they have a responsibility to serve in the community.
- 46% of faculty were members of a board of directors for a nonprofit, professional, educational, cultural, social service, charitable, or religious organization.
- 64% of faculty agree that W&L is collaborative in its approach to working with the community.
“College is more than earning a degree. Service in your new community builds connections that cannot be replicated on campus and is another learning environment.”
Sasha Edwards
Bonner Scholar • Major: Biology • Minor: Education
Learning in Action
W&L offers a variety of ways for students to engage with the local community, all of which foster critical intellectual and civic virtues consistent with the university’s mission.
Leadership Programs
Through leadership programs, students match their passion for community engagement with opportunities in programs designed to help them realize their leadership potential and develop their capacity to think freely, critically, and humanely.
Community-Based Coursework
With our close ties to the community, our commitment to education, and our mission to prepare students to be engaged, responsible leaders, W&L provides a unique environment for service and civic engagement in an academic setting. Students have a wide variety of courses to choose from that integrate learning and mentorship in reciprocal and mutually beneficial ways.
Student Service Organizations
W&L boasts over 100 student organizations and clubs, many focusing on community engagement and service activities both in the local community and beyond.
Internships & Alternative Breaks
W&L offers internships that provide meaningful and practical work experience related to community engagement and service. During the semester and summer, students have opportunities for career exploration and development and to learn new skills. Alternative Breaks throughout the year are a unique way for students to serve and learn about real issues impacting people and cities around the country. Alumni host students, who spend the break serving and learning around a specific issue.
Work Study
There are a variety of on-campus and off-campus jobs students can apply for through either the Federal Work Study or university work-study programs, including placements in local community-based organizations.
Washington and Lee University Receives National Designation for Commitment to Community Engagement
W&L is one of 15 private colleges and universities to receive the 2024 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
Sascha Goluboff Participates in the Sancho Panza Literary Society Summer Workshop
The professor of cultural anthropology and director of the Community-Based Learning Program experienced a 10-day residency at Trinity College in Dublin.
W&L Hosts 20th Annual Tom Wolfe Weekend
The weekend’s seminar will feature Jayne Anne Phillips discussing her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Night Watch.”
Positivity Meets Personal Connections
Mariam Drammeh ’25 has approached research, internships and campus involvement with an eye toward a future rooted in service to others.
Connell Cunningham Jr. Named Scholar in Residence for the Office of Community-Based Learning
The visiting assistant professor of chemistry will serve a one-year term for the 2024-25 academic year.
Three W&L students partnered with an NGO in Ghana this summer to create a training program for aspiring female entrepreneurs.
Adhip Adhikari ’27 spent much of his summer creating a library at a secondary school near his family’s home in Katmandu, Nepal.
The Lenfest Center Presents ‘Native American Peoples and Lands: Historic Connections to W&L’
The public talk will take place in Kamen Gallery on Sept. 27 and is part of the Lenfest Center’s Outreach & Engagement Series.
W&L students share their experiences getting to know the larger Lexington and Rockbridge community during the summer months.
Washington and Lee Students Selected for Congressional Hunger Center Internships
Sai Chebrolu ’26 and Valentina Giraldo Lozano ’25 are among 13 students chosen for the Zero Hunger Internship program.
Ben Bankston ’25 is finding opportunities at W&L to challenge himself in and out of the classroom.
CBL Faculty Collaborative Generates New Community Connections
The 2023-2024 academic year at W&L saw the proliferation of several new course offerings for students through a new faculty development initiative offered by the Office of Community-Based Learning (CBL).
Washington and Lee students are applying their accounting skills in the community as part of the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.