Neesome Bree Workshop

Association of Community-Engaged Scholars

The Association of Community-Engaged Scholars (ACES), a student-led organization, supports the community-engaged research and teaching efforts of UW–Madison graduate students from any department. ACES strives to be a central meeting point and resource hub for graduate students professionally active in their communities, no matter their prior experience with community-engaged work.

Among other things, we provide professional development opportunities, online resources, project feedback, and networking events. A growing network, ACES is organized and driven by its graduate student members.

Navigating UW–Madison’s History: Foundations for Community Engagement
Monday, Sept. 23
1 to 2:15pm
Red Gym, Morgridge Center for Public Service

Register for Event

Join the Association of Community-Engaged Scholars on Monday, Sept. 23 for a speaker series event with Kacie Lucchini Butcher from the Center for Campus History. Discover key aspects of UW–Madison’s history and explore how that history has shaped community-engaged work. All graduate students are welcome!


Public Works: Graduate Student Community Engagement Opportunities Mixer
Wednesday, Oct. 9
3 to 4:30pm
University Club Building, Room 313, 432 E. Campus Mall

Are you a graduate student interested in community engaged approaches to research and teaching? Looking for professional development geared toward pursuing public-facing careers post UW-Madison? Curious about the public possibilities of your knowledge and credentials?

Join a collection of community-engaged units for a graduate student mixer intended to provide students with the chance to network across disciplines with like-minded peers and learn about resources available to support your community engagement interests.

RSVPs are required and seats are limited. To join, please send an email with your name and affiliation to: weindling@wisc.edu. Light refreshments will be available.


The Morgridge Center is committed to providing universal access to all of our events. Please contact Cory Sprinkel (sprinkel@wisc.edu) to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Every university resides in a community. Whether a small town or large city, universities are surrounded by homes, businesses, schools, community centers, theaters–people’s lives. Collaborating with citizens in these spaces to help improve them has historically been one of the primary purposes of higher education in the United States, yet is one we often overlook today.

Community-engaged Scholarship (CES) helps bridge this gap by fostering sustainable partnerships between university faculty, staff, and students with local citizens and organizations to address real community concerns. CES can be primarily a research (Community-based Research or CBR) or educational (Community-based Learning or CBL) tool, but is always a way to bring university resources and local, lived expertise together to create powerfully practical responses to real needs.

Social gatherings: ACES hosts regular social meetups on and off campus for the AGES community. Often featuring ice cream at the Terrace, these meetups are a great way to connect with graduate students across campus, learn about opportunities and events, and build community with other engaged scholars. 

Podcast club: ACES hosted a podcast club to learn about and discuss community-engaged themes and organizations beyond UW campus. Podcasts discussed include: The Black Panthers and Public Health (by Sawbones), detailing how the Black Panthers advocated for medical research and created public health programs that sought to make life better for all black and oppressed people; and The Power of Experience with Caroline Gottschalk Druschke (Human Powered), a Wisconsin humanities podcast exploring the impacts of the 2018 flood on rural communities. 

Disciplinary Mapping Workshop, Spring 2022: This workshop brought together graduate students from across campus to work through boundaries, resources, and opportunities for community-engaged scholarship across campus. 

Join our Google Group to receive notifications and learn more about ACES!

Interim Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Scholarship Cory Sprinkel: sprinkel@wisc.edu