YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Youngstown State University’s latest accomplishment places it among fewer than 300 colleges and universities across the country and recognizes its commitment to community engagement.
University officials announced Monday morning YSU’s Carnegie Foundation Elective Classification for Community Engagement award, the culmination of an effort that started in 2018.
Amy Cossentino, dean of the Sokolov Honors College and associate provost for experiential learning and engagement, who led the effort to secure the designation, said pursuing the classification became a goal in the university’s strategic plan several years ago.
The community engagement “classification recognizes institutions that have partnerships between universities and their communities that enrich learning, research and creative activities and civic responsibility,” she said.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was established in 1905 and chartered by a 1906 Congressional act.
Cossentino said the process of pursuing the recognition involved every department and division across campus and several partner community organizations.
“Community engagement is not considered as an extra, but as part of how Youngstown State University defines excellence, makes decisions and measures our success,” she said.
The dean listed students volunteering with United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley food distributions as well as nursing students helping United Way with elementary school vision screenings and students tutoring Youngstown City School District students in Project Pass among examples.
YSU President Bill Johnson said that while Cossentino is quick to share the credit with many on campus, the designation is a direct result of her leadership.
“And the one thing she didn’t say out of modesty, is there are thousands of universities and institutions across the United States – only 277 across the nation received this designation,” Johnson said. “This is a really big deal.”
And YSU earned the classification with its first submission, something that’s rare, university officials said.
“This is a very rigorous and demanding application process,” the president said. “It took years of work to get us to this point. And the Carnegie Foundation, they really dig deep. They look across the spectrum. You can’t just pretend to be community engaged. You have to demonstrate with results that you’re community engaged.”
He said being community engaged helps YSU understand the needs of the community.
“We don’t just create programs in a vacuum,” Johnson said. “We create programs and we educate students based on the needs of the region. There’s a lot of work that goes into determining what those needs are. If we’re not engaged in the community, we have no idea what the needs of our partners and the employers all across the region are.”
And YSU’s engagement is important for the community because the university provides the workforce, he said.
The classification is valid until 2032, and Cossentino said YSU will continue to build on its work to retain it.
Thousands of YSU students are involved in community engagement activities, and the university developed a system to track them. It extends across campus from the Sokolov Honors College to student-athletes to student organizations and different majors. Students work with community partners, learning technical engagement that can benefit them in their careers, Cossentino said.
“We want to give them a deeper experience so they can really see more how this connects to the developing of those skills that can help them as they go out into their professions,” she said. “So we’re really giving them that experiential learning, that hands on” that differentiates them from other students.
Pictured at top: Amy Cossentino, dean of the Sokolov Honors College and associate provost for experiential learning and engagement.