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How It Works

We invite faculty to apply.

The AOE was made possible by the generosity of a Middlebury alum from the 1970s. This endowment, inspired by the very meaningful experience of the alumna’s thesis project, is used to provide support to faculty who wish to pursue community-connected teaching and research opportunities and integrate real world issues with academic course work for and with students.

Examples of community-connected teaching, learning, and research include:

• Community-based learning: Community Engagement Scholars Donahue and Plaxton-Moore (2018) define community-based learning as a course-based experience that cultivates a student’s academic and civic knowledge and skills, as well as values and commitments, through direct engagement with communities and groups working to address a particular issue (e.g. systemic injustice, climate change, etc.).
• Project-based learning (when there is a direct community connection)
• Public scholarship and community-based research
• Participatory action research
• Service-learning 

Goals of the community collaborations that AOE grants support include 1) developing students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions for informed engagement in civic life & positive social change, and 2) contributing to building the capacity of community members and institutions to achieve a public purpose. 

The Academic Outreach Endowment does NOT fund projects that are only either community service initiatives or unpaid internships.

Grants are awarded a maximum of $3,000, and typically range between $1,000-$2,500.

Recipients may have the opportunity to give public presentations detailing their projects.

Eligibility

• All undergraduate faculty are eligible to apply. Applications are encouraged from all disciplines.
• Faculty applicants may collaborate with others to apply, with collaborators such as staff, student(s), community partner(s), and other faculty.

Criteria

Grants are awarded competitively, based upon the following criteria:

• The project must be academically rigorous.
• The topic being addressed should be identified with community partner participation and reflect effective reciprocity, accordingly.
• The structured process of analysis and reflection should be of high quality and built into the project plan.
• Representation across academic divisions is desired, overall.
• The Center for Community Engagement encourages applications those who are new to this methodology, as well as from those who are more experienced.
• AOE grants can fund local, national, and international projects. For international travel, see below for details about additional approval steps.
• Funding does not cover equipment that is readily available through Middlebury (e.g., digital cameras).

Application

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis for funding requests for community-based courses and research projects. It usually takes no shorter than three weeks to move from application to accessing funds, so please plan ahead. Priority is given to earlier applications and may run out. 

Here are suggested timelines for applications, aligned with the course planning and registration period for any given semester:

• For fall semester courses/research projects, end of April
• For winter term courses/research projects, mid-October
• For spring semester courses/research projects, mid-November
• For summer research projects, mid-April

If your proposal requests funding to span the summer (May- August), let us know so we can plan for how your funds can cross between fiscal years (which begin in July).  If you have special needs or concerns or would like further information, please reach out.

! Applications for Fall 2025 are now being accepted.

Grant Application Components

• Basic project information (Google Form questions). Clearly articulate the community-connected need/issue you are addressing and the community partner(s) with whom you will work.
• Upload a project proposal (750-1000 words) with a budget narrative for the funds requested, ensuring that the funds will be expended within a year of the award.
• Upload a detailed budget of funds requested.
• Upload at least one letter of commitment and support from the participating community partner(s).
• Depending on your proposal, you may need to request .

Be sure to identify the course to which the grant relates, and how project connections will be incorporated within the course. If in support of research, identify the focus of your scholarship. Identify collaborators.

Past Funded Projects

Faculty Projects 

• Mapping Landcover Change in Restoration Landscapes
  Funding supported a series of virtual workshops that allowed a collaboration between an upper-level remote sensing course in the Geography Department and the World Resources Institute (WRI). Prior to embarking on extensive forest restoration, WRI needed to understand the landscape changes that have taken place historically in target restoration sites and work satellite imagery is a powerful way for analyzing such changes. Students worked with the WRI to perform these needed preliminary analyses of landscape change, contributing to a more efficient preparation for restoration activities.
   
• Native Presence and Performance: Reclaiming the Indigenous Narrative
  ​â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹In this First Year Seminar, students respectfully engaged with and supported leading local Abenaki culture bearers as well as and Native playwrights from around the country, who shared how their work contributes to their nations’ goals and who illuminated how cultural expression supports ongoing Indigenous survivance. Funding supported honoraria for guests to the seminar as well as registration fees for students to participate in Abenaki Heritage Week events.
   
• Henry L Sheldon and His Museum, Then and Now
  ​â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹Through this collaboration with the Sheldon Museum, students examined crucial primary source materials related to the founding of the museum and worked to make these important archives more accessible both for the museum staff and for external researchers. Other goals included more firmly establishing provenance of some of the original artifacts of the Museum, thereby increasing the knowledge base of the collections and bringing greater public awareness to the museums’ collections. Funding supported needed professional photography of artifacts and archival research assistance.
   
• Lyme Disease Surveillance in Addison County and a Teaching Module for High School Students
  ​â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹â¶Ä‹Funding allowed a faculty member to hire a summer research assistant to continue a tick survey of Addison County in an effort to better understand Lyme Disease risk. This was, in part, in response to data from the Centers for Disease Control that indicated that Vermont had the highest incidence of Lyme disease in the nation in 2013. The faculty member and research assistant then partnered with three MUHS biology teachers to offer a course module that was based on their research.
   
• Centro Cultural Movil—a Socially Engaged Design Project
  Grant money funded the design of a mobile hub Centro Cultural Movil (CCM) in partnership between Architectural Studies and Migrant Justice in Vermont. CCM will provide access to community resources to Latino farmworkers that are in isolated contexts.
   
• Lincoln Stories
  Grant funding enabled a faculty member to give their students in a Spring class the opportunity to conduct extensive interviews with a wide range of Lincoln residents. Inspired by an earlier service-learning course called Starksboro Stories, this course culminated with students devising engaging ways to offer these stories of land and community back to the town.
   
• ESL Community Partners
  Connected a January course in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) with local organizations that support refugee/immigrant students. Supported instruction, create resources, and build relationships.
   
• Artistic Exchange, Choreographic Networks, and Dance Diplomacy in Mexico
  Grant money funded the Middlebury Dance Company to participate in an artistic exchange by creating a show in collaboration with the EPDM conservatory, in Mazatlan, Mexico. This developed an ongoing artistic/study abroad collaboration with the EPDM conservatory, Delfos Danza, and gave students the opportunity to participate in a global choreographic network of artists, and open up intercultural opportunities in Central America.
   
• Social and Emotional Development Community Project
  Funding helped a professor engage the students in his social/emotional development class to work with three local community early education centers. Students volunteered during lab periods, gaining skills working with infants/children while also supporting the work of early childhood educators.
   
• Chinese Outreach Program in the Public Schools
  Funding allowed a faculty member to hire a student assistant, provide mileage reimbursement, and purchase materials needed to train and embed Middlebury College student volunteers in a local elementary school with partner teachers for regular language lessons (both teacher and class). They also served in the after-school program meeting twice per week for an hour each session.

Connect with Us

Please contact Diane Munroe (dmunroe@middlebury.edu) with any questions as you are preparing your application.