Community Partnerships
UC Berkeley’s American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) program was created in recognition of the fact that both the university and the surrounding communities could benefit from mutual collaboration.
In addition to breaking down the traditional barriers between teaching, research, and service that exist in the university system, the ACES program was designed to value the different forms of knowledge and expertise that exist outside of the university setting. The program created a structure in which the university’s high-caliber research and scholarship was produced together with communities and directed towards addressing their most pressing needs, and in doing so helped to ensure that the work of university members remained relevant to society.
In the spirit of the ACES program, we engage directly with several community-based organizations as partners. Our partners will help us understand their communities’ historical experiences of engineering and environmental justice, as well as identify the ways in which future engineers might help them work toward social and environmental justice. In addition, a subset of students in this course will have the opportunity to work directly with these organizations on projects related to soil, air and/or water quality. These projects have been designed in collaboration with each organization.