Mission

The mission of the EX[L] Center is to help students emerge as civically-engaged, adaptable leaders, ready to join in the enterprise of building strong and sustainable communities by promoting hands-on, community-based, problem-centered learning.

Goals

To address this mission, EX[L] seeks to:

• Support, expand, and create community-based opportunities that allow UA faculty and students to engage in Akron.
• Sustain and develop connections between UA constituencies and local changemakers.
• Help students develop a connection to Akron as they explore their own pathways to a degree.
• Assist faculty with creating innovative, transdisciplinary, community-engaged learning strategies.

Origin

The University of Akron has a long history of strong hands-on and problem-based learning, as well as community-engaged activity by faculty and students; but, many of these activities have developed and function in silos. Founding Director, Jeff Hoffman joined the university in July 2015 to launch an initiative in experiential learning that addressed these silos.

Hoffman, an entrepreneur of global repute, entered the field of higher education "perfectly" according to one faculty member who continued, "He went on a listening tour, meeting with faculty in small groups, exploring the terrain of disciplines, projects, and partnerships that had evolved organically here at UA but which lacked a strong sense of identity and connectedness across campus." Hoffman and EX[L] resource director, Ian Schwarber, then met with the most interested faculty from across the university. Hoffman shared his impressions and enlisted their assistance in advancing the development of the EX[L] Center.

Meanwhile, Hoffman and Schwarber reached out to community and student leaders as well, eventually establishing a three-part structure for EX[L] drawing from the strengths and perspectives of student, faculty and community advisory councils. Schwarber's skill at event conceptualizing and marketing helped raise EX[L]'s profile, opening opportunities for collaborations with entrepreneurs and local secondary schools. Energetic and charismatic, Hoffman and Schwarber sparked entrepreneurial, social entrepreneurial, and community development-oriented events both on and off campus in 2015 and 2016. These included BluPrints to EX[L], entrepreneurial panel discussions held in Akron hotspot the BluJazz nightclub and an immersion week for area high school students. In 2016, they selected a faculty collaboration director, Carolyn Behrman, to join them in overseeing EX[L] activity. Having launched EX[L], Hoffman and Schwarber separated from the University of Akron in Fall 2016.

Behrman and Anoo Vyas were appointed as co-Directors of the EX[L] Center in Fall 2016. A Now a professor emeritus, Behrman has 20+ years of experience in community-based research and service-learning linking University of Akron students with organizations and groups across Akron. At EX[L], Behrman concentrated her energies on academic-community engagement and works with faculty and students to enhance existing and foster new community-engaged experiential learning through the curriculum. Vyas employed his significant experience with business incubation, business law and creative and entrepreneurial community partners to develop new opportunities for students within the greater Akron area.