RU Engaged

RU Engaged is a Chancellor-funded effort to support community engaged teaching and learning. The project, led by Cara Cuite – SEBS and Kathe Newman – Bloustein, includes the creation of a faculty community of those interested in community engaged teaching and a series of Byrne First Year Seminars with embedded Spring Breaks. RU Engaged is a partnership of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy along with the Byrne Seminar Office, the Office of Spring Breaks, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, and the Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement.

The RU Engaged New Brunswick Faculty Group is for faculty who teach community-engaged, for-credit courses, such as practica, studios, and those with service learning or course-based research projects that are done in partnership with community groups. In Spring 2026, RU Engaged held the second convening of the RU Engaged New Brunswick Faculty Group at the Douglass Center. A faculty panel moderated by RWVC faculty affiliate Bernadette Baird-Zars discussed their experiences with community engaged teaching.

This spring was also the launch of the inaugural RU Engaged Byrne Seminar with embedded alternative Spring Break. In the traditional classroom, students learned about community food security. During Spring break, students completed a set of service activities with Unity Square Community Center, Elijah’s Promise, and REPLENISH, Middlesex County’s food bank. Students built raised garden beds and cleaned up a community garden; created seed starter kits; unboxed and organized food and helped neighbors shop at the food pantry, and prepared meals for Elijah’s Promise’s mobile food truck.