Community-Engaged Learning (CEL)

The Community-Engaged Learning Office (CELO) serves as a bridge for academic engagement with our surrounding environment. We cultivate relationships of reciprocity with people and places in Shanghai and greater China while combining academic learning with community-based research and service. Our staff facilitate and support  courses, students, and faculty who wish to incorporate community engagement into their academic teaching and learning practices.

Fall 2024 Community-based Programming

Urban Sketching: Practice “slow looking” as we explore our neighborhood and make new friends in this weekend urban sketching group. No drawing experience necessary!

Film Screening of “Another Day of Hope”: A brave and realistic depiction of the daily life pressures endured by waimai delivery drivers, tech company managers, and their families in contemporary China.

Big Brothers, Big Sisters Program: Students pair with local children from underprivileged backgrounds to explore different aspects of university life and form positive bonds. 

Farm Field Day: Dig your hands into the soil while learning about permaculture farming in rural Shanghai with members of the Yungu Farm who will share personal stories and discuss their connections with themes from the book Braiding Sweetgrass. Co-sponsored by the NYU Shanghai Reads Program. 

Faculty-Led Immersive Learning Trips: We partner with faculty to develop multi-day trips to Beijing, Jiangsu, and Hong Kong. These trips connect academic topics with place-based experiential learning about the people, history, culture and environment of local communities. Click here for more information and examples of past trips.

Campus Plants and Garden Project: Research the plants and trees growing on campus and help plant on the rooftop garden. Co-organized with the NYU Shanghai Garden Committee.

We organize events to connect faculty, students, and staff with community-based topics, experts, and places to foster learning connections and potential future collaborations for research and teaching. Below are some examples: 

Below are reports of past events:

• Learning to Honor Every Story: A 'Slow Storytelling' Workshop in China Focuses on Human Connections
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Exploring Qiantan with CEL
• NYU Shanghai Students Explore Qiantan Neighborhood through “Food and Design”
• NYU Shanghai Students Document Home through ‘Slow Storytelling’

Faculty Resources

We offer consultations for faculty on ways to integrate community-based resources, trips,and projects into courses. Email shanghai.cel@nyu.edu for an appointment and see additional tools and resources developed by practitioners around the world to help instructors plan for community engagement.

Academic Service-Learning Courses

Service-learning courses offer students the unique opportunity to serve the needs of local communities through applying academic studies. See here for examples.

Faculty-Led Immersive Learning Trips

The Office of Community Engaged Learning partners with faculty to design learning trips around China. These trips connect academic topics with place-based experiential learning about the people, history, culture and environment of local communities. Click here for more information and examples of trips.

College and Career Lab (CCL)
We run a service-learning summer camp for migrant youth in collaboration with local NGOs, Assistant Professor of Psychology Lixian Cui, and NYU Steinhardt Associate of International Education Professor Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, a founding team member of NYU’s College and Career Lab in New York. More information can be found here: Building Dreams and Breaking Barriers: NYU Shanghai Hosts Summer Camp for Migrant Youth