Community-Based Research
While students might think of research as a process simply meant to write academic papers, community-based learning demonstrates that “research” is important in all career fields and projects. Business majors do marketing research, test products, analyze data, and find case studies that create better ventures. Human Services students do community research to learn the needs of vulnerable populations so that their work addresses those specific needs. Engineers don’t only build products, but they find the ways in which their products can address the technological needs of their communities. Nurses and psychologists look for better ways to serve their patients, and political scientists study the effects of public policies.
These are all things that you learn in a classroom, but also that you can learn more richly as you work with local organizations and businesses to apply research to solving problems and find the special contributions that will let you live out your passions.