The Faculty of Public Affairs (FPA) hosted the fourth annual Community Engagement Event on Feb. 24 to kick of FPA Research Month.
The event was held in the MacOdrum Library Discovery Centre. It connected Ottawa community organizations, including Hub Ottawa, Entrymark, and the Alliance to End Homelessness with students.
Ottawa groups and Carleton faculty offered networking presentations and gave students a chance to get more involved in the community.
Ashley Fleischer, the Discovery Centre administrator, organized the event this year. She said networking workshops at the event gave students opportunities to bolster their resume.
“It takes them out of the classroom and doing things that they could potentially be doing in job situations,” she said. “It just adds something interesting and creative to their academics.”
Fleischer said there is also a potential for the annual event to connect students with jobs.
“I can’t speak for what the organizations are giving to the students, but definitely that’s an option,” she said.
The event also featured a panel discussion on the “power, joys and tribulations” of community and campus partnerships, according to the event description.
The panel was presented by Marc-André Clément of Culture Shock Canada, a “network of non-profit dance companies,” along with Carleton multimedia design students.
Maranda Grant, a practicum student in human rights, said she checked out the event “on a whim.”
“The place I’m doing my practicum at recommended that I come network and learn more about different things in the Ottawa community,” she said. “It’s been a really good learning experience and it’s been nice to connect with a few different things that are on campus and off campus.”
