community engagement

At UWC-USA, community service is more than giving back—it’s about finding purpose through action.

Connecting with Compassion

Through community engagement, students take their first steps toward understanding systems transformation.

Care and Compassion

Meaningful service is purposeful, sustained, and meets community needs, not our own agendas.

Mutual Responsibility and Respect

We approach service with the mindset of learning from and working alongside the people we serve.

Connection and Understanding

Students connect with local communities and develop an understanding of the culture of northern New Mexico.

Seeing the Big Picture

Inequality creates underfunded schools, which can lead to literacy challenges. Climate change creates water shortages, exacerbating poverty. Community service helps students grasp the relationships between issues and the very real effects those issues have on people.

Agency and Idealism

Small actions can make a meaningful difference. We can’t solve inequality, but we can help a student build reading fluency.

Sense of Perspective

Global challenges seem less overwhelming when you see that progress is possible—bit by bit.

Habit of Engagement

UWC-USA students go on to be engaged, civic-minded adults who give back to their communities financially or through service.

Learning Expeditions

An opportunity to connect theory with practice and deepen students’ classroom knowledge, learning expeditions offer place-based exploration of topics.