Community Engagement
Making a difference isn’t something you have to wait to do. At Warren Wilson College, you’ll start before your first class. We will guide and support you in your pursuit to build a just, equitable, and sustainable world. You’ll graduate well prepared to be a catalyst for change in local and global communities.
Walking the Talk
At Warren Wilson, we share your fierce passion to serve your community. So we walk the talk. Community engagement isn’t optional at Warren Wilson. It’s required.
Here, every major has classes where you will think deeply about issues that you are passionate about and collaborate with others to take action in the local and global community..
And as a member of the Warren Wilson community, you will be surrounded by faculty, staff and peers who are dedicated to addressing our most pressing social and environmental justice issues and exploring creative solutions right alongside you.
By integrating community engagement into every aspect of your learning experience and requiring it of all students, our program does a superior job of cultivating engaged citizens.
Explore Our Issue Areas
At Warren Wilson College, we collaborate with community partners to address social and environmental justice issues. We find that the issues that we care about in the world are often connected and there are many points of intersection. Students engage with a wide variety of issues, but we commit the most time and develop the deepest partnerships in our designated Issue Areas.
The Environment
Learn MoreFood Security
Learn MoreHousing and Houselessness
Learn MoreRace & Immigration
Learn MoreYouth & Education
Learn MoreHow You’ll Do It
The Community Engagement Office supports your involvement by providing a variety of opportunities, including:
- Community-Engaged courses
- Community-Engaged research
- Internships
- Ongoing commitments with local organizations
- Community-Engaged work crews
- Lightning Terms
- Service Day
Engaged. Learning.
Every student in every major completes at least 2 community engaged courses before graduating. These experiences could be:
A Community Engaged Course
In a Conservation Biology class, you could develop a deeper understanding of how we maintain the earth’s biological diversity while partnering with a community organization to address a conservation issue.
A Study Abroad Experience
In a study abroad course to Indonesia led by a sociology professor, you could live with homestay families in a remote village in the jungle and engage in projects to support the village with infrastructure improvements.
What It Means
Annually, Warren Wilson students complete over 35,000 hours with local, national, and global communities.
But we’re interested in more than how many hours our students contribute. We want to know that we’re sending young people into the world with the confidence and experience they need to engage in their future communities. Our alumni tell us it works.
- 81% of Warren Wilson alums indicated that their experience here prepared them well for social and civic involvement (national comparison: 56%).
- 79% Warren Wilson graduates said that they felt their experience here contributed quite a bit or very much to their knowledge, skills, and development in civic engagement (national comparison: 55%)
