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The Community Engagement Forum (CEF) features and celebrates the community-engaged work being done by Loyola students in service-learning courses, internships, community-based research projects, and student organization outreach initiatives.  In 2013, the forum has been integrated into the Undergraduate Research Symposium for the first time, so as to create Loyola's first-ever Undergraduate Research & Engagement Symposium celebrating Loyola's mission of "putting knowledge in service to humanity."  The Forum aims to educate the general community about important social issues, to inform them about ways that Loyola students are working to respond to those issues, and to inspire and empower participants to become personally engaged in building a more just Chicago and world.

Many of the products of community-based projects or community-engaged scholarship do not lend themselves to conventional academic presentation formats (e.g. oral or poster presentations).  The CEF offers students the chance to present their work through a wider variety of media/formats.  Previous years’ presentations and interactive displays have included:

  • Video montages chronicling a community-based project’s development and outcomes;
  • ePortfolios (displayed on laptops so that participants can interact with the e-folio);
  • Photo essays (printed as posters or on cardstock/foam core for display) accompanied by “artists’ statements” that provide context for the images;
  • Table-top displays of resources produced for a community site or as part of a community-based project (e.g. pamphlets, booklets, marketing materials, etc.);
  • Laptops set to project-developed websites or blogs chronicling students’ experiences;
  • Posters or display boards providing context for a project, educating the community about the issues the project responded to, exploring the methodology pursued, etc.
  • Sign-up sheets, announcements of upcoming events, and other resources allowing participants in the Forum to become involved in the project or its sponsoring community-based organization as volunteers, donors, etc.


Again, the goal of these presentations is not only to educate and inform, but also to engage participants in the great work that student presenters have done...in the hope that they might carry it forward in their own way, and within their own contexts.

The registration deadline for ALL Symposium presentations (including CEF presentations) is Friday, March 15.  Students can register here.

General Guidelines for CEF Presentations

Guidelines for Engagement Posters (including printing instructions)

Students may also present community-engaged projects as part of the Symposium's oral presentation sessions.  Guidelines for ALL oral presentations can be found on the Symposium overview page.