The Office of Community Engaged Learning is proud to announce four recipients of the 2023 President’s and Engaged Campus Awards from the Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact (IAMNCC) in recognition of their outstanding commitment to community engagement and civic responsibility. This year, 86 awardees were selected from 55 colleges and universities across the two-state network.

The following Drake recipients were recognized at an in-person ceremony on April 13, 2023, at St. Catherine University in Saint Paul, MN.

• Matthew Williams, a senior majoring in accounting, was recognized with the Presidents’ Student Leadership Award. Williams has been an advocate for people with disabilities and involved with Easter Seals his entire life. On campus he has built a community of students, faculty and staff dedicated to developing the resources needed to create a more inclusive campus environment.
• Alejandro Hernandez, Dean of the Zimpleman College of Business was recognized with the Presidents’ Civic Engagement Leadership Award. Dean Hernandez has led a rebrand of the college focused on ‘Business as a Force for Good’, launched the Dean’s Honor Roll for Social Impact, and created a new Social Impact Research and Outreach Award to recognize faculty and staff contributions to improving society through their research and service.
• Homeward, Polk County’s homelessness planning organization was recognized with the Presidents’ Community Partner Award. Following up on a one-time community-engaged learning course partnership, Homeward worked with Drake University to commission a first of its kind community engaged research project to provide a platform for 157 people experiencing homelessness to tell their stories and the findings are being used to inform local public policy.
• Elizabeth Talbert, assistant professor of Sociology was recognized with the Engaged Campus Award for Community Collaboration. Dr. Talbert has spent the last two years building relationships with affordable housing agencies, the staff that run them, and the people who are served (or not) by them. What began with a sociology methods service-learning project morphed into a collaboration involving Talbert, Dr. Matthew Record, assistant professor of Public Policy and American Politics, 8 students, and the members of the Polk County Homeless Coordinating Council to examine why individuals face barriers to shelter and permanent housing in the Des Moines community.
• Sprout Learning Garden and Food Forest received Honorable Mention for the Engaged Campus Award for Emerging Innovation. Sprout, located at 1300 30^th Street, is home to more than 60 food-producing trees and shrubs, hundreds of edible perennial plants, pollinator-attracting flowers and natives, three permaculture swales, a half-acre learning garden, gathering spaces, and a walking trail.

Additionally, Marguerite Stoffel, a third-year business student, was selected for the 2023 National Campus Compact Newman Civic Fellowship!  One of her key projects on campus has been supporting the administration of the Dean’s Honor Roll for Social Impact and serving as an ambassador to business college students on how to meaningfully engage with the community.

Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact (IAMNCC) is a network of 55 colleges and universities committed to strengthening the capacity for civic engagement and campus-community partnership in the service of

Contact: Renee Sedlacek Lee, Director of Community Engaged Learning, 515-271-2454, or renee.sedlacek@drake.edu.

Renee Sedlacek Lee, Community Engaged Learning