College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

By Dave Larsen

Campus Compact, a nonprofit coalition of colleges and universities committed to fulfilling public purposes of higher education, honored the Dayton Civic Scholars, a University of Dayton program shaping undergraduate students into civic leaders, with the 2025 Excellence in Civic and Community Engagement Programming Award.

Dayton Civic Scholars is a scholarship program administered by UD’s Fitz Center for Leadership in Community in which students make a three-year commitment to engage the Dayton community in public service.

“We are proud to recognize this group of exemplary programs as the inaugural recipients of the Campus Compact Excellence in Civic and Community Engagement Programming Awards,” said Campus Compact President Bobbie Laur. “Each of the programs honored with this award demonstrates a unique, highly impactful, and innovative approach to campus civic engagement work, and illustrates the multifaceted power of higher education in enacting long-lasting positive change.”

Dayton Civic Scholars will be honored during Campus Compact’s annual national conference, March 31-April 2, in Atlanta. Samantha Kennedy ’12, the program’s director, will attend and accept the award.

The program is also supported by Graduate Assistant Jaylyn Murray, a master’s of public administration student.

Now in its 20th year, with more than 200 alumni, Dayton Civic Scholars pairs students of all majors with Dayton neighborhoods and organizations for high-impact community-engaged learning projects that have included nutritional education, technology workshops, affordable housing and homelessness education and early literacy promotion.

Civic scholars have gone on to serve in elite roles at the United Nations, local and national government, and social service organizations.

“They get an understanding of what it means to be an active citizen, to be in public service, and to take whatever their majors are and help benefit the community,” Kennedy said. “So, they get a wide variety of experience and then by the time they are seniors they can apply that knowledge practically.”

Dayton Civic Scholars supports 45 students annually, who are divided into groups of 15 by their academic year.

Students participate in 30 hours of civic engagement each semester based on their personal interests. They also complete one civic engagement internship, with opportunities for paid internships.

During their senior year, students complete a year-long capstone project to address a community-identified need with a community partner.

“Being a Dayton Civic Scholar has been a profound privilege during my time at UD,” said Jakob Burdick, a junior political science major from Beavercreek, Ohio, who was named a 2024-25 Newman Civic Fellow for his work as a voting rights and civic engagement advocate in the Dayton community.

“This program has provided me with invaluable opportunities to collaborate with community leaders and government officials, some of whom are accomplished Dayton Civic Scholars alumni,” Burdick said. “These experiences have enriched my education beyond the classroom, instilling in me a deep commitment to serving the common good as a public servant. Through this program, I have had opportunities to witness community building and problem-solving in action. Additionally, I have developed meaningful relationships that could serve as valuable connections as I aspire to begin my professional career in the Miami Valley region in the years ahead.”

Senior chemistry major Caralina Crouch said she had some difficulty relating to other UD students because she is a commuter student from Dayton.

“When I joined Dayton Civic Scholars, I saw it as an opportunity to help people from my community who have gone through similar things as me,” Crouch said. “Of course, we might not always have many things in common, but we are all part of this community in Dayton.”

Kennedy said seeing the collective community impact of the program’s 17 capstone projects to date has been rewarding.

“This year our seniors are working on the topic of homelessness with partners at two organizations, Miami Valley Housing Opportunities and Montgomery County Homeless Solutions,” Kennedy said. “They are working deeply with those partners based on what those partners need and what they could use student skill sets for. I hope that benefits both our community partners and the wider issues they are tackling.

“We could not do this work without the support from the long history of those who have supported this program over the past 20 years, especially our community partners,” she said.