In his most recent blog, President Daniel Pullin discussed TCU’s values and noted, “The value students, faculty, and staff use most to describe TCU is ‘community.’”
Community and Engagement are two of TCU’s core values. They come together in this pillar that positions TCU to “be the institution that writes the next chapter for Fort Worth and beyond in partnership with the community, including partnering with the region’s Top 40 employers.”
The Community Engagement pillar is focused on finding ways to leverage more of TCU to benefit Fort Worth and North Texas and finding ways we can strategically engage that larger community to support TCU. Some of the specific Community Engagement goals include:
- Drive curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and innovation across TCU to realize new academic, research, and community-focused initiatives.
- Focus on mutual growth that enhances the local community, employers, and student experiences by developing strong multi-dimensional academic, research, service, and philanthropic partnerships with top employers in Texas and the Fortune 500.
- Maintain and expand ongoing partnerships with Fort Worth health care systems, non-profits, and education systems to address societal factors that affect well-being in Fort Worth, Texas, and beyond.
- Leverage local, state, and federal government partnerships to advance key policy and program opportunities with transformative potential for TCU and the region.
- Establish TCU as the dynamic, creative, cultural hub for Fort Worth through arts-focused collaboration, innovation, engagement, and entrepreneurial activities.
- Be recognized as the leading entrepreneurial support organization in North Texas inspiring, supporting, launching, and attracting businesses.
- Bolster TCU’s engagement as a leader in the community via leadership and service positions at leading regional, national, and global organizations.
We will work together to achieve these goals through eight key initiatives that will roll out over the next few years. Many of the initiatives have already started, including the Innovation Hub and Community Impact, and others are still in the planning phase.
The Innovation Hub initiative will open a TCU-wide hub to inspire, connect, and drive innovation across TCU and the community. But what will that look like? The Innovation Hub will work with partners across campus to launch programming (e.g., speaker series, networking events, workshops, hack-a-thons) that encourages collaboration, creativity, and experiential learning. The Innovation Hub will also expand experiential student/faculty project opportunities engaging companies and non-profits across North Texas and beyond.
Today, there is no centralized way to track and promote the remarkable efforts being advanced across campus, highlight opportunities for engagement, or measure impact. The Community Impact initiative will create and support a central hub of community engagement, providing the requisite infrastructure to facilitate, scale, track, and recognize student, faculty, and staff engagement in Fort Worth, North Texas, and beyond. This initiative, led by Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, is leading the effort to secure the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement.
The other Community Engagement initiatives include efforts to support professional development, establish a fine arts footprint in downtown Fort Worth, coordinate and expand corporate partnerships, enhance government relations, scale entrepreneurial support efforts, and engage Fort Worth and North Texas like we never have before.
So, what’s next in Community Engagement? Stay tuned as we’re excited to provide updates on these impactful initiatives and the great work of the TCU community to deliver.