The winner of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium Excellence in Community Engagement Award is Kara DuQuette. Kara is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Studies’ Adult and Community Education Program, as well as a Project Manager for the Office of Immersive Learning.

Here is a Q and A with Kara

Tell us about the Engagement Scholarship Consortium Excellence in Community Engagement Award! 

The Engagement Scholarship Consortium is recognized as the premier organization that promotes engaged scholarship and mutually beneficial university-community partnerships with the ultimate goal of meaningful societal impact and improving lives. The core values of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium and strategic priorities are justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, centered in all work, particularly in attention to power differences, resource distribution, and systemic change. The Engagement Scholarship Consortium believes that collaboration and co-creation are vital in working with community-university partnerships and should be embedded in scholarship for meaningful change. The Excellence in Staff Engagement Award recognizes staff in higher education and their institutions for exemplary contributions to scholarship and the practice of community-engaged scholarship. This year the Office of Immersive Learning staff received this distinguished honor. Our team members traveled to Athens, Georgia, for the Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s 22^nd Annual Conference to accept our award. I was also asked to be a part of an award winners’ panel to discuss our immersive learning work here at Ball State University.

What brought you to Ball State University? 

Muncie is my hometown and spending more time with my family brought me back. I enjoy working with community-engaged immersive learning projects and studying higher, adult, and community education in Teachers College.

What is one lesson you have learned as a graduate student?  

I learn daily that there is so much to gain from collaborating with people, sharing experiences, and learning about each other’s lives.

What are your future goals/career goals? 

I plan to continue my work in academia in some capacity that deals with collaborative learning, community partnerships, students, faculty, equity, and justice, as well as my work as an educator and visual artist.

Anything else you would like us to know?  

I enjoy working with community-engaged immersive learning projects that are transformative learning experiences for many of our students, faculty, and community members while improving the quality-of-life for people in Muncie and East Central Indiana.