Merrimack College has again been recognized for its deep commitment to community engagement, receiving the prestigious Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
Launched 19 years ago, the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification serves as a leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement. Merrimack College first received the designation in 2020 and it was renewed through this most recent cycle. Today, 277 U.S. higher education institutions hold the designation.
This designation speaks to Merrimack’s long-standing history of community engagement and efforts to create collective impacts, a history that started in 1947 and is built on the foundation of the College’s Catholic Augustinian values. Community engagement is interwoven in the fabric of Merrimack’s past, present and future that it is included among the key initiatives in the College’s strategic plan, the Agenda for the Future.
Central to Merrimack’s community engagement are partnerships with nonprofit organizations, schools, municipalities and health and human service agencies across the Merrimack Valley and beyond. These partnerships are built on shared goals, ensuring that community members are not just recipients of service, but collaborators in shaping programs, research and initiatives that address real community needs.
“Merrimack College is incredibly honored to once again receive this designation,” said President Christopher E. Hopey, Ph.D. “Community engagement and service are the ethos of Merrimack, instilled by our Catholic Augustinian values and traditions. It is our collective responsibility to care for the common good, and we strive to accomplish this through college accessibility initiatives, student service learning, faculty research and events that support our neighbors.”
The Carnegie Community Engagement Classification application process is a self-study that began at Merrimack about a year ago. Led by Mary McHugh, associate vice president of mission and ministry for service and community engagement, the application highlighted the several ways Merrimack has enhanced its commitment to community engagement since it first received the designation in 2020.
“The classification recognizes that we are a college that cares about the community and has that collaboration with them,” said McHugh. “We are committed to involving the entire Merrimack community with the outside community. And it is not just for faculty research or student service, we also listen and respond to what the community needs.”
Merrimack’s community and civic engagement is represented across several areas of the College, including student experience, faculty research and service.
Mack Gives Back has transformed since the College first received the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification from a single-day volunteer event into a series of programs dedicated to supporting neighbors in need. Along with the annual Mack Gives Back Days, which see the Merrimack community pack hundreds of thousands of meals for area food pantries, Mack Gives Back leads a Thanksgiving basket drive, holiday toy drive and the College’s MLK Day of Service.
Austin Scholars, a living-learning community that brings together students who are passionate about leadership, service and community, completes nearly 6,000 student service hours annually at more than 25 sites across the Merrimack Valley.
The College’s SEND trips, an alternative spring break program, have continued to grow since a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several times throughout the academic year, SEND trips give students, faculty and staff the opportunity to volunteer, serve and immerse themselves in communities in other states and countries.
The pandemic exposed significant disparities in access to health care and nutritious foods for people living in the Merrimack Valley. To help close that gap, the College launched the Center for Health Inclusion, Research and Policy (CHIRP) in 2021. CHIRP’s mission is to better address these disparities through research, applying interventions and proposing policies that promote wellness and prevent physical and mental disease, especially among vulnerable populations.
Since its founding, CHIRP has been the College’s leading research center and has been awarded millions of dollars in external grants funding important studies in food insecurity and nutrition, improving the health of children and young people with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disabilities and the health and wellness impact of insufficient sleep.
In the future, McHugh said, there are plans to add a civic and community engagement minor option to Merrimack’s general education curriculum.
“We believe it will provide students with another important educational pathway which will help to ensure their lifelong commitment to their future community,” McHugh explained. “I think it will be pretty powerful when students say ‘I am in this program’ or ‘I am this major’ and ‘minoring in civic and community engagement.’”
