ABOUT THE EX[L] CENTER

On this page: 

• Contact info
• Mission and Goals
• Origin
• Directors
• Staff
• Faculty participation 
• Student participation

Contact

Dr. Carolyn Behrman, Co-Director, behrman@uakron.edu or 330-972-5477

Professor Annal Vyas, Co-Director, annal.vyas@uakron.edu or 330-972-6789

Office: 330-972-8153

Located at 168 Bierce Library. (See Bierce on a map)

Mission and Goals

The mission of the EX[L] Center is to help students emerge as civically-engaged, adaptable leaders, ready to join in the enterprise of building strong and sustainable communities by promoting hands-on, community-based, problem-centered learning.

To address this mission, EX[L] seeks to:

• support, expand, and create new experiential learning programs on campus,
• assist faculty with barriers to innovative, interdisciplinary, experiential teaching,
• be a resource for students reaching out from their curricular homes to explore interdisciplinary or other innovative pathways, and
• sustain existing, and develop new community partnerships that bring UA students and local business and non-profit change-makers together.

DIRECTORS

STAFF

Student participation

Student Advisory Council

2017 -2018 Purpose Statement:

The EX[L] Student Advisory Council currently operates differently from other student organizations.  There are no traditional roles such as President, Vice President etc.  Instead, we function as sounding boards by offering ideas, suggestions, or feedback as it pertains to the operations and programs of the EX[L] Center. We also function as project managers who meet to discuss student-driven and collaborative project ideas. We offer each other advice about how to best implement those ideas. We also serve as ambassadors for EX[L] reaching out to new students and faculty. 

2017-2018 Student Advisory Council Members

EbaNee Bond
Sam Borick
Dom Bruno
Dee McCall
Corey Cargill
Whit Woodruff

2015-16 Student Advisory Council Members

Justin Cohen (co-chair)
Andrea Rupley (co-chair)
Trevor Allen (subcommittee chair: Hackathon)
Kevin Karas (subcommittee chair: EX[L] Integration)
Dylan Hansen (subcommittee chair: Internal Outreach)
Taylor Swift
Ricky Angeletti
Sterling Galehouse
Isabella Bartholemew
Akhila Gopal
Clarissa Santana

EX[L]'s origin

The University of Akron has a long history of strong hands-on and problem-based learning, as well as community-engaged activity by faculty and students; but, many of these activities have developed and function in silos. Founding Director, Jeff Hoffman joined the university in July 2015 to launch an initiative in experiential learning that addressed these silos.

Hoffman, an entrepreneur of global repute, entered the field of higher education "perfectly" according to one faculty member who continued, "He went on a listening tour, meeting with faculty in small groups, exploring the terrain of disciplines, projects, and partnerships that had evolved organically here at UA but which lacked a strong sense of identity and connectedness across campus." Hoffman and EXL resource director, Ian Schwarber, then met with the most interested faculty from across the university. Hoffman shared his impressions and enlisted their assistance in advancing the development of the EX[L] Center.

Meanwhile, Hoffman and Schwarber reached out to community and student leaders as well, eventually establishing a three-part structure for EX[L] drawing from the strengths and perspectives of student, faculty and community advisory councils. Schwarber's skill at event conceptualizing and marketing helped raise EX[L]'s profile, opening opportunities for collaborations with entrepreneurs and local secondary schools. Energetic and charismatic, Hoffman and Schwarber sparked entrepreneurial, social entrepreneurial, and community development-oriented events both on and off campus in 2015 and 2016. These included BluPrints to EX[L], entrepreneurial panel discussions held in Akron hotspot the BluJazz nightclub and an immersion week for area high school students. In 2016, they selected a faculty collaboration director, Carolyn Behrman, to join them in overseeing EX[L] activity. Having launched EX[L], Hoffman and Schwarber separated from the University of Akron in Fall 2016.

Behrman and Anoo Vyas were appointed as co-Directors of the EX[L] Center in Fall 2016. A tenured faculty member, Behrman has 18 years of experience in community-based research and service-learning linking University of Akron students with organizations and groups across Akron. At EX[L], Behrman concentrates her energies on academic-community engagement and works with faculty and students to enhance existing and foster new community-engaged experiential learning through the curriculum. Vyas employs his significant experience with business incubation, business law and creative and entrepreneurial community partners to develop new opportunities for students within the greater Akron area.