What's Happening in CEL

The Office of Undergraduate Studies is proud to celebrate the winners of the 2025 Community Engaged Learning Faculty Awards. These outstanding faculty members have demonstrated exceptional dedication to fostering meaningful connections between the University of Utah and the wider community. This year’s Public Service Professor Award recipient is Dr. Udita Gupta, Associate Professor (Career Line), Urban Institute for Teacher Education (UITE), College of Education. The Distinguished Faculty Service Award honors Dr. Sonia Salari, Professor, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, and Dr. Leslie Francis, Alfred C. Emery Professor of Law, and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy.

The Spring 2025 CEL Workshop Series will be on Community Based Participatory Research will be led by Dr. Ana Antunes who has recently published the book “All In: Community Engaged Scholarship for Social Change.”

Akila Chalapathi, a fourth-year student at the University of Utah and a Bennion Scholar for three years, is collaborating with the International Refugee Committee (IRC) and Dr. James Bekker from the School of Dentistry for her Capstone project.

Eliana Massey, a student in their final year at the University of Utah majoring in Philosophy of Science and museum studies, has been working on a capstone project developing a curriculum on culturally significant plants and foods that connect the Pacific Islands and the Americas for Pacific Heritage Academy (PHA), a K-8 charter school in Rose Park.

Lily Alavi, an associate instructor in the Department of World Languages and Culture, has made community-engaged learning a cornerstone of her teaching. Her journey into this field began shortly after moving to Utah in 2009 when she attended a Bennion Center conference introducing her to service learning.