'The Common Thread': USD Partnership Builds Network for Community Engagement

Substantive community engagement is part of the University of San Diego identity. As a Laudato Si’ university, USD programs are engrained with the idea to “care for our common home.” Its mission, vision and values repeatedly return to a commitment to take the knowledge and resources of our campus beyond its grounds to help the communities and world around us. 

And now, a new partnership taps into that long-held ethos.

This year, USD’s Mulvaney Center for Community, Awareness and Social Action became the new home of LEAD California, a statewide organization that unites higher education institutions in the pursuit of advancing impactful community engagement.

“It serves as a portal of understanding, resources that are archived over a series of time,” Christopher Nayve, associate vice president for community engagement and anchor initiatives, said of LEAD. “Because then new folks can access that information. So I think that is a pretty important function where LEAD is essentially the continuity, the common thread, onboarding new generations of leaders.”

LEAD was founded in 1988 as California Campus Compact with the goal of getting students more engaged with a service mentality – not only through curriculum, but also through research and experiential learning opportunities.

In the decades since, it’s evolved into a network akin to research or professional associations, where field experts can come together to share their knowledge. University leaders share their approach to curriculum that incorporates community engagement, and share best practices. They present cutting-edge research, how to be good partners while making a real impact. 

And it creates a community focused on service and solutions. LEAD’s coalition is statewide, but within that are regional networks, where peer institutions can work together to boost efforts or collaborate on ambitious initiatives, all in service of lifting up their neighbors, their communities, for years to come.

The LEAD network turns education into action.

“We're really focused on regional, and localized professional development opportunities. And to develop that infrastructure,” said Erica Yamamura, executive director of LEAD California. “So it's kind of taking that community engagement work that's not just teaching, but also research and policy and student engagement, and really developing communities of practice and, and ways in which people can – across campuses and regions – can do this work together and amplify the work.”

USD has long been a partner of LEAD. The university has been a member since the beginning, and USD President James T. Harris III, DEd, is a current member and former chair of the nonprofit’s board. So there’s plenty of history behind the decision to make the Mulvaney Center LEAD’s new administrative home.

The organization’s leaders described USD as a model institution, whose work on place-based community engagement has been recognized nationally and internationally. Earlier this year, USD was selected by the Carnegie Foundation as its host for Community Engagement Classification, a designation that USD itself has been awarded for 20 straight years.

“We want to be aligned with a place like USD, who’s really committed to this high-quality engagement work as a pillar of the university experience for students, faculty and the community” Yamamura said. “I think that’s why coming to USD has been such a gift.”

The relationship, though, is reciprocal. Nayve says USD wouldn’t be what it is without what it’s learned.

“Without LEAD California, USD is not at the level of impact and understanding that we're at today,” Nayve said. “Without their leadership, there's no way we would have the understanding to influence the culture at USD to become the kind of campus that we are.”

Today, a push that started in administration is being driven largely by students. Year after year, more and more students voice how important it is to them to not just find a good job after college, but one where they can make a difference. That inspires optimism.

“We have been working this whole entire time toward that goal – to instill a lifelong ethic of service,” said LEAD California Deputy Director Piper McGinley. “And now, service is becoming not only just more interesting to the students, but we're seeing students who started doing service learning in kindergarten, you know, 20 years ago, and wanting to choose colleges based on who has these opportunities for them. I think we have certainly seen a shift over the last 38 years.”