ABSTRACT

Partnerships between colleges/universities and community organizations have become the dynamic core of higher education’s engagement strategy. Faculty, staff, and students with energy, resources, passion, disciplinary expertise, and commitment have embraced these partnerships, but there is strong indication that the efforts often lack an understanding of the complexity of partnership arrangements (Driscoll, 2008). Partnerships are a complex interplay between the individuals and organizations involved. Students, faculty, and community partners bring their personal knowledge and motivations into their relationships, which play out in how the activities are conceived and facilitated, making each partnership unique and difficult to replicate. Couched within this lack of understanding is limited knowledge regarding the essential leadership roles that college students can play in partnership initiation, facilitation, and sustainability. Much of the communityuniversity partnership literature uncovers the role that faculty play in initiating and supporting community-university partnerships and the ways these educational experiences affect student learning. Yet there is little exploration of the impact that student leadership has on supporting community-university partnerships and the importance of this work in sustaining the relationships between communities and institutions.