From the Nominator

"As a public, urban-serving university, The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) is dedicated to connecting campus and community. Our community engagement often takes the form of community-engaged teaching, learning, and research. Our commitment to Kansas City also shows up as volunteerism. 

During fall 2022, multiple UMKC offices across the University of Missouri System collaborated on a weekend of service, bringing numerous disparate events under a single umbrella to maximize impact for all involved. UMKC's Offices of External Relations and Constituent Engagement, Student Involvement, and Alumni Relations worked collaboratively with multiple student organizations to cultivate over 500 unique opportunities for our students, faculty, staff, and alumni to serve the local community. 

The initiative's impact was magnified by: (1) involving students and community partners in the planning, execution, and assessment processes, (2) strategically adding new events, including an on-campus blood drive, and (3) shifting current events to new dates, including our annual Roo's Give Back Service Day and our dentistry school's Team Smile event.  

These collective efforts resulted in over 300 UMKC Roos contributing nearly 600 hours of service to eight different community organizations. These events served as UMKC's celebratory conclusion to our participation in the UM System's extension and engagement week, which consisted of dozens of in-person and virtual events with nearly 7,000 participants across the state of Missouri."

From the Judges

Great example of engagement with collaboration and participation across all of the university on this initiative. Very impressive!  Evidence of reflection and learning to continually improve the weekend of service and add new ideas to respond to feedback.