Signature Programs

The Lang Center’s signature programs and initiatives forge connections between the College’s liberal arts curriculum—teaching as well as research—and community partners near and far, for mutually rewarding collaborations on “our most pressing social, civic, and ethical problems” (Boyer 1996). The term “signature programs'' refers to ongoing Lang Center initiatives that advance Engaged Scholarship goals and unite communities of scholars, practitioners, and other constituencies who collaborate for positive social change. The Lang Center continues to hold as a priority cultivating relationships with organizations, institutions, stakeholders, and individuals that can help us meet our mission and broader Engaged Scholarship goals.

Signature Programs

Colab

The mission of the CoLab is to foster community-led collaborative action with Swarthmore College’s local and global community partners. We value ethical engagement, campus-community reciprocity, social justice and innovation, and shared responsibility. 

CoLab

Engaged Humanities Studio

EHS focuses on experiential, community-based, and critical-making practices that combine humanistic modes of inquiry and understanding with extra-humanities disciplines, non-student communities, and/or pressing social issues.

Engaged Humanities Studio

Lang Opportunity Scholarship Program

The LOS Program selects members of Swarthmore’s sophomore class who have distinguished academic and co-curricular achievement, leadership qualities, and demonstrated commitment to civic and social responsibility.

Lang Opportunity Scholarship Program

Chester Community Fellowship

The Chester Community Fellowship (CCF) enhances the capacity of Chester-based community organizations while providing opportunities for student learning.

Chester Community Fellowship

Project Pericles Fund

The Project Pericles Fund supports groups of Swarthmore students who propose and implement social and civic action projects whose scope and sustainability will advance solutions for issues of pressing civic concern.

Project Pericles Fund

Civic Scholars

Linking academics with action empowers students to tap into the rich body of knowledge, experience, and passion that fuels them, while providing communities with students trained to contribute to their social change efforts. The Civic Scholar program seeks to open new pathways for communities and campus to engage with each other, enhance networks (social capital) of students and community members beyond Swarthmore College, and increase capacity of both students and communities to achieve their civic and social responsibility goals. To that end, this program provides students with mentoring, education, training, and funding over multiple years.

Civic Scholars