Building a Culture of Community Engagement
In 2017, UMW President Troy Paino shared his Strategic Vision and his desire to “instill the value of service across the university” for students, staff, and faculty and his hope that:
“UMW will continue to be a force for positive social change aimed at producing citizens ready, willing, and able to address the greatest challenges facing our democracy and world…The University of Mary Washington is an investment of hope grounded in the belief that every human being has the freedom and power to grow at any instant and can join forces with others to change the world for the better.”
This Strategic Vision, updated in 2022, emphasized UMW’s strong ethic of public service and supports the development of more opportunities for community engagement. Community engagement can take many forms, including volunteering in the local community, community-engaged research, and service learning courses.
In alignment with these values, the Center for Community Engagement was created to support the work of all members of our UMW community as we work to give back to the greater Fredericksburg community that we are a part of. The University has several programs for UMW staff and UMW faculty to encourage and facilitate community engagement. More information can be found at the UMW staff page and the UMW faculty page of this website.