The 4th Annual Engage Dallas Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium is taking place on November 5–6, and we’d love for you to be there! Registration is free and open to all through the button below.
We can’t wait to gather with community leaders, educators, students, and neighbors from across DFW for two days of meaningful learning and engagement.
The RSVP deadline is October 24, 2025, so don’t miss this community-based professional development opportunity.
The 4th Annual Engage Dallas Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium is taking place on November 5–6, and we’d love for you to be there! Registration is free and open to all through the button below.
This year’s keynote address will invite us to reflect deeply on how place-based engagement can bridge divides and foster meaningful belonging within the community. Our keynote speaker, Krista Nightengale, brings a wealth of experience in journalism, non-profit management, and community building. Krista will challenge us to think about what it truly means to thrive together.
Alongside thought-provoking talks, you’ll also have the chance to experience connection firsthand. Day two of the symposium will feature an interactive activity, presented by ArtStillery. Believing that audiences should be more than spectators, ArtStillery breaks the fourth wall to create an experiential performance style that fosters immersive theater. Be prepared to be immersed at this year’s symposium.
We can’t wait to gather with community leaders, educators, students, and neighbors from across DFW for two days of meaningful learning and engagement.
The RSVP deadline is October 24, 2025.
Krista Nightengale began her career in journalism when she stumbled into the fascinating world of urban design. She discovered the Better Block Foundation, an international, urban design nonprofit that educates, equips, and empowers communities and their leaders to reshape and reactivate built environments to promote the growth of healthy and vibrant neighborhoods. In her nearly 10 years at the Better Block, Krista has worked with neighbors in more than 100 cities to rethink streets, turn parking lots to plazas, and identify the barriers keeping communities from enjoying their public spaces. The work has resulted in economic development, calmed streets, and has lowered crime rates. But most importantly, it brings neighbors together. Krista has built hundreds of digitally fabricated benches, kiosks, and survey stands. She uses social media to educate around placemaking and transportation, and she’s a pretty adequate drone operator (as long as there’s no wind).
Krista was most recently on the Dallas City Plan and Zoning Commission, the Dallas Comprehensive Land Use Committee, past-president of the Dallas Architecture and Design Exchange board, former AIA Dallas Board Member, former member of the Dallas Commission on Homelessness, and a graduate of Leadership Texas.
Artstillery is a multidisciplinary arts & social justice organization that uplifts marginalized voices by working alongside community members to shape their narratives into original immersive productions.
Founded in 2016, Artstillery creates performances centered around issues of racial, cultural, and social injustice. Sometimes a story needs a storyteller, but that starts with listening. Our process begins with research using a combination of community outreach and interviews. We combine these stories with an interdisciplinary artistic approach that creates a ‘total theatre’ experience. Artstillery’s goal is to give a voice to people who feel they have none.
Engage Dallas is seeking to hire one faculty grader to assume responsibility for managing weekly grading of the Engage Dallas Canvas Courses. Grading is estimated to take 2-3 hours weekly.
About Engage Dallas
Engage Dallas is a place-based community engagement initiative via SMU’s Residential Commons to address community needs focusing on South and West Dallas. The initiative is a long-term, university-wide commitment led by students to partner with local residents, organizations, and other leaders to positively impact the community. There is equal emphasis on campus and community impact stemming from the initiative.
Engage Dallas learning modules are facilitated via Canvas Learning Management System. All students are automatically enrolled in the Engage Dallas Canvas Course in order to complete the required modules for participating in service events. Students who intend to use Engage Dallas to earn the Community Engagement and/or the Civic and Individual Ethics Proficiency & Experience for the Common Curriculum will be enrolled in a 2nd Canvas Course to track their progress. Grading occurs in both courses.
The following strategic goals guide the work of the Engage Dallas initiative:
Position Description
Engage Dallas grading centers the “4 Cs” learning outcomes originally developed by Mesa Community College. The four Cs include (1) communication, (2) civic engagement, (3) critical thinking, and (4) cultural and global engagement. Engage Dallas student reflections should address one of the four Cs.
Modules that prompt student reflection include, but are not limited to:
Note, some reflections are submitted in essay style, while others may be submitted in a creative format such as art reflections, interviews, or letters.
Major Position Responsibilities
Grading Schedule
Position Requirements
Compensation Structure
Graders for Engage Dallas are paid a stipend of $3,500 divided into installments. The Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education and Academic Success will not request or require a time sheet to document actual hours worked, but instead will take the weekly gradebook export as an indication of the work agreement.
It is the responsibility of the grader to notify the Co-Initiative Manager and Assistant Provost if the job responsibilities cannot be completed.
To apply, please send a letter of interest and your CV to Dr. Dustin Grabsch (dgrabsch@smu.edu) by 5pm on Monday, June 30, 2025. Interviews and selection will be completed by July 31, 2025, with a start date of August 1.
The 2nd Annual Place-based Community Engagement Symposium was a success last week. Participants engaged around the theme of “Listening, Learning, and Leading: A Place-based Approach to Promoting Public Responsibility and Community Engagement in a COVID-impacted World.” 114 registered for the two-day symposium.
The conference planning committee chose this theme due to their observation of the challenges posed by COVID-19; our community engagement landscape has evolved significantly, from decreased volunteer participation to heightened community needs.
Conference registrants helped shape this year’s symposium. The planning committee had over 60 questions submitted for our opening session and panel discussion. Plus, questions were arranged as discussion topics at the networking event on Thursday evening.
Audryanna Reed, Associate Director for High-Impact Practices, Co-initiative Manager of Engage Dallas, and Chair of the conference planning committee, shared, “Engage Dallas is grateful for the opportunity to bring together non-profit and civic leaders in Dallas as well as staff and faculty across SMU and Dallas College. Such inspiring words, cultural context, and critical challenges posed by our keynotes Latosha Bruff and Jerry L. Hawkins, M.Ed., as well as our panelists and workshop hosts!”
A copy of the program booklet is included below.
Reed and the conference planning committee are underway with year three planning. Building off the dialogue from this year’s conference, the theme will likely incorporate the concept of “under-championed communities,” which was prevalent in this year’s sessions. Reed says to expect a save the date soon for the November 2024 symposium.
This Engage Dallas symposium collaborated with Residence Life & Student Housing, The Budd Center, The Office of General Education, the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility, and The Center for Teaching Excellence.
Hosted by Engage Dallas, in collaboration with Residence Life & Student Housing, The Budd Center, The Office of General Education, the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics & Public Responsibility, and The Center for Teaching Excellence, this two-day event will take place on November 2nd and 3rd.
About the Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium
The Place-Based Community Engagement Symposium is a gathering of thought leaders, academics, community leaders, and nonprofit professionals from SMU and the DFW area.
This event is designed to explore the transformative potential of community engagement within specific geographic contexts.
Our goal is to delve into the strategies and innovations that have the power to catalyze positive change within communities, with emphasis on campus and community collaboration and sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships.
RSVP
Seats are limited, so please RSVP by October 20, 2023. You will be able to opt to register for one or both days.
