Colleges and universities from across the state gathered at Guilford on Wednesday to explore ways of improving community and fostering community-engaged students on their campuses.

The annual North Carolina Campus Engagement (NCCE) general conference attracted more than 200 presidents, administrators, faculty and staff from North Carolina colleges and universities. The NCCE is a collaborative network of schools committed to educating students for civic and social responsibility and partnering with communities for positive change.

President Kyle Farmbry welcomed the guests to the opening session in Alumni Gym. He says hosting the conference for the first time is a great way for the College to share what it’s doing and learn best practices from other schools.

“It’s really helpful to gather and talk about community engagement and civic engagement and hear the stories of what other campuses are doing,” he says. “There’s a lot of creativity that makes up the successes at all schools. We’re excited about sharing and learning from everyone.”

On Tuesday evening, Kyle hosted a dinner at Ragsdale House for college presidents who attended the conference.

Following the opening session on Wednesday, conferees fanned out across campus for workshops addressing civic engagement, reconnecting after COVID, facilitating civic learning and democratic engagement, community-based learning and more.

Christian Matheis, Visiting Professor of Justice and Policy Studies, and Cathryn Bennett, former Director GOCI and International Student Advisor, along with Community Justice majors Candace Fant ’24, Miriam Guzzardi ’24, Yein Kim ’24 and Jay Porras ’24 led a workshop on food insecurity.

Christian and Sonalini Sapra, Associate Director for Guilford’s Center for Principled Problem Solving and Excellence in Teaching, helped lead a workshop on campus communities hosting and resettling refugees. Community & Justice majors Lucy Selby ’24 and Madeyson Dyce ’24 also helped with the workshop.