The Robert and Eleanor Westfield Experiential Learning Fund powers three interconnected initiatives that redefine how we teach, learn and engage beyond our campus.

Through the Inside Out prison education program, we bring college courses inside correctional facilities with equal numbers of incarcerated and degree-seeking students learning together. Your support covers faculty training, course materials and the printing of student work—including poetry collections that challenge every assumption about who belongs in our classrooms and what education can accomplish.

The fund also enables our annual faculty development institute, where instructors learn to design community-engaged courses that serve both pedagogical goals and community priorities. This training has transformed departmental missions across campus. Approximately 700 students now enroll annually in courses that connect academic study with real-world application, and tenure criteria increasingly recognize community-engaged teaching as high-impact practice.

Finally, your investment maintains the technology platform that connects students with hundreds of civic engagement opportunities. Students can search, register, track participation and reflect on their experiences—creating a culture where engagement becomes integral to the educational journey, not supplemental to it.

You're funding more than programs. You're funding a philosophy: that learning happens in relationship, that boundaries can be crossed, and that our responsibility extends beyond campus. Thank you for believing in that vision.