Introduction

At East Carolina University community engagement is a reciprocal partnership between ECU and a community or communities established to respond to issues and opportunities in a mutually beneficial way. It occurs through curricular engagement such as service learning and outreach and partnerships. A significant opportunity exists for ECU to grow its scholarly activities in the engagement arena. ECU's Division of Research and Graduate Studies and its constituent Office of Engagement, Innovation and Economic Development (OEIED) developed the Outreach Scholars Academy to provide a competitive professional development opportunity for ECU faculty.

Faculty scholarship associated with curricular engagement is scholarly activity that faculty produce in connection with their service learning or community-based courses or internships. The scholarship products include peer reviewed professional presentations and publications along with curriculum development, assessment of student learning in a community, and action research conducted in a course. These products may be disseminated by means of reports, curriculum materials, and/or faculty development workshops.

Faculty scholarship associated with outreach and partnerships is scholarly activity that faculty produce in connection with their partnership development and participation or their outreach activities. The scholarship products are professional presentations and publications along with research studies of partnerships, documentation of community response to outreach programs, and other forms of assessment that have been disseminated by means of reports and policies.