James Madison University
PRE-2: Points of Distinction

A traditionally manicured grass area has been transformed into an educational ecosystem that provides students and faculty with an outdoor learning resource and demonstrates JMU's commitment to environmental stewardship. Collaboratively developed by JMU faculty, students, staff, community members, and a Visiting Scholar, the project won a silver-level Governor's Environmental Excellence Award in 2014 and a JMU President's Purple Star Award in 2023.

The East Campus Hillside Project, located below King Hall, began in 2010 with an educational meadow designed in cooperation with students, faculty, staff, and a visiting scholar. Now a six-acre area that advances student education, environmental quality, and campus sustainability, the hillside supports student learning outcomes and brings positive attention to the university through funding, recognition, and replication. The hillside features three acres of meadows containing primarily native plant species, a two-acre tree planting area home to 25 different tree species, 1031 feet of restored stream channel and associated riparian buffer, a solar array with pollinator habitat, raised beds, a weather station, and a 0.5-acre food forest.

The hillside supports engaged learning through place-based, hands-on integration with curriculum across multiple academic areas including Biology, Geography, Geology, Integrated Science and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies. More than thirty-two sections of nineteen courses used the hillside in recent years. In 2023, the East Campus Hillside's expanded solar array and native pollinator habitat enabled JMU to be the first university in the state to earn a Virginia Pollinator-Smart Program Certification.

The Valley Scholars program serves first-generation, financially eligible students, who are motivated and show academic promise in middle school and throughout high school. Current partner school districts include Augusta County, Harrisonburg City, Page County, Rockingham County, Shenandoah County, Staunton City, and Waynesboro City Schools. After completing the application and interview process, students are selected in the spring of the 7th grade year, with program participation beginning in the 8th grade. The program offers educational and cultural enrichment opportunities with several program days occurring throughout the academic year. Students also attend a weeklong summer camp for the summers between 9th and 11th grades. The central focus of the program is to foster and encourage a desire to learn, while also building skills that will help students achieve the academic success necessary for college attendance. 

IIHHS is a leading center at JMU in helping the university achieve its vision of being the national model of an engaged university. Furthermore, we are a significant contributor to the strategic goals of Academic Affairs and the College of Health and Behavioral Studies by offering high quality, community-engaged educational experiences for JMU students and opportunities for community-engaged research and scholarship for faculty while meeting the needs and building the capacity of vulnerable members of the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County community and people throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to offering 19 community-based programs and partnering with academic units to support ten clinics, IIHHS serves as a hub for robust interprofessional/interdisciplinary education at CHBS, and community engagement learning that exposes students to the strengths, struggles and resilience of a diverse array of people and communities in the Commonwealth.

IIHHS engagement with students, faculty, and the community remained strong as noted by the statistics below:

• 999 students engaged in IIHHS programs, representing 39 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.

• 42,725 hours of student engagement in direct services, program support, service learning, and other collaborative endeavors.

• 850 students participated in Interprofessional and Interdisciplinary Education (IPE) workshops and simulations.

• 200 students enrolled in IPE courses offered through IIHHS.

• 103 faculty members were engaged with IIHHS programs, representing 24 academic disciplines.

• 15,465 clients received Institute services.

• 5,340 clinical encounters at IIHHS sites.

• 2,218 clinical encounters at community sites.

• $463,993 in clinic cost recovery to sustain training and services.

• 2,941 program outreach visits with a community focus.

• 1,035 events coordinated for the community.

• 109 formal reports prepared and submitted.

• 21 scholarly publications and presentations.

• $7,963,276.03 in new grant awards to drive community engagement.

IIHHS programs provided an extensive range of opportunities for JMU undergraduate and graduate students through our community engagement and clinical programs: 

• 43 students were placed with IIHHS programs as interns.

• 418 students volunteered with our programs in a variety of capacities.

• 463 students completed their required practicum with IIHHS programs.

• 4 received graduate/teaching assistantships.

• 65 fulfilled class-required community service learning requirements.

• 6 students were employed by IIHHS programs.

Overall, our partnership network grew from last year, changing from 433 to 525 partners from last year, representing a 21% growth. This growth was experienced in all sectors¹ except for schools, where we had 56 fewer school connections. This decrease is partially explained by the changes in the Area Health Education Center, which experienced a leadership and grant-cycle transition that caused a pause in program outreach efforts to advance our high school pathway to health careers programming.

Yet the Institute’s ongoing partnership network has continued to grow. Programs and clinics reported hundreds of continuing relationships, many of which are of long duration, and also reported on a large number of engaged contacts newly identified this year. Our inventory of non-profits, schools, school districts, hospitals, health care providers, faith communities, social service agencies, businesses, other colleges/universities and government agencies numbered 525 this year.

• For 95 non-profits we reported 166 program connections.

• For 129 schools & school districts we reported 260 program connections.

• For 115 hospitals & health care providers we reported 189 program connections.

• For the 186 “other” organizations (social service agencies, ministries, government agencies, businesses) we reported 254 program connections.

In all, 869 distinct program connections in the community were tracked this year:

• 15% (129) of these were new.

• 49% (422) were multi-year but under 10 years.

• 37% (318) were over 10 years old.

The growth, density, and duration of our community connections speaks to our commitment to the community, the quality of our work, and the relationships we have established and nurtured over time, all of which help to advanced JMU’s reputation in the community and the achievement of its vision to be the national model of the engaged university.

Source: IIHHS Annual Report 2022-2023, https://www.jmu.edu/iihhs/_files/iihhs-annual-report-23.pdf

Footnote 1: We track connections in the categories of nonprofits, hospitals and health care providers, schools and school districts, and “other,” which includes social service agencies, ministries, government agencies, and businesses.

Information confirmed as current at time of submission.