University-Partner Learning Communities

The CFDE Engaged Learning Program collaborates with the Community Building and Social Change Fellows Program in Campus Life to organize University-Partner Learning Communities (UPLCs) in which faculty, students, staff and community partners from specific areas of metropolitan Atlanta work. Over an academic year, the UPLC's learn to work together and create projects that are mutually beneficial and that generate new opportunities for engagement between the university and Atlanta area communities.

The pilot UPLC, begun in fall 2016, focused on the Buford Highway area. Thematically organized around art and social transformation, this UPLC resulted in, among other outcomes, Emory now being poised to host the Latino Youth Leadership Conference in fall 2019.The second phase of the Buford Highway UPLC will be led by Faculty Coordinator Dr. Karen Andes during 2018-19. 

The second UPLC will be focused on South DeKalb, working with community partners who have been involved in the Dekalb Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative. The theme of this UPLC is “Living Well for the Long Term” and will be facilitated by CFDE Director of Engaged Learning Vialla Hartfeld-Méndez and Kate Grace, director of the Community Building and Social Change Fellows Program.