Established in 2006, the Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement (CTICE) focuses on creating authentic university-community partnerships, promoting community-based learning, and building community capacity.
CTICE develops, implements, and sustains programs for University students, local K-12 public schools, and community organizations. These programs harness the intellectual and material resources available at Columbia University to educate socially responsible students and build community capacity.
The Columbia community-based learning curriculum, which CTICE supports, constitutes one of the nation’s largest college-level community-based learning programs, involving 500 students per year, awarding more than 1600 credits, and working on more than 100 community projects.
CTICE’s community-based learning curriculum is unique because …
- It integrates community capacity building and support within formal, curriculum-based learning.
- It engages in projects that community groups and partner organizations identify based on formal needs analyses and asset mapping, rather than on projects that the University offers or decides that it can provide.
- It defines project success in terms of tangible results for community partners as well as class learning objectives and intended outcomes.
- It allows for continuous community engagement throughout the year and across all college years.
Columbia University gratefully acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation, the Boeing Company, the GE Foundation, Pfizer Inc, the National EPICS Program, the Charles Hayden Foundation, Prudential Financial, AIG, and Thirteen/WNET in developing the Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement.