Community-Based Research

Community-based research (CBR) has become an important strand of academic civic engagement at the Harward Center.

Students in several departments have the opportunity to do community-based research in courses and for their senior thesis or capstone project. Indeed, some departments now offer research methods courses that focus specifically on collaborating with the community for research.

At the Harward Center, we offer support for students engaged in community-based research through the Community-Based Research Fellows Program. Originally funded by a grant from Learn and Serve America, and now funded by a grant from the Christian A. Johnson Foundation, the program offers students fellowship support for their community-based research projects and a non-credit seminar, led by Interim Director (and Professor of Psychology) Georgia Nigro, in which the students discuss the principles and practices of CBR as they apply to their individual projects. During the academic year, six senior thesis students with several different majors participated in the program. In summer 2011, ten students from many different majors and class years, participated as CBR Fellows. Nine of these students worked in the greater Lewiston-Auburn area, and one worked abroad, at a music school for low-income children in South Korea.