Are you connected to a non-profit, a school, or a community organization in the greater Asheville area and interested in partnering with Warren Wilson to offer volunteer or internship opportunities for our students? We are excited to partner in our shared commitment to the people, places, and environment of Asheville and surrounding area.

Ways to Partner

If you have an opportunity to which you’d like to connect Warren Wilson students, please fill out our Opportunities Form. If you have questions you’d like to discuss with our staff, please email us at engagement@warren-wilson.edu.

To read more about our Community Engagement Commitment, required of all students, refer here.

Warren Wilson College engages with our community in several different ways:

• Bonner Leader Program Placement

Bonner Student Leaders are placed with a community partner for one semester to engage in both direct service and capacity building projects.

• Bonner-Led Community Engagement

Bonner Leaders recruit and facilitate groups of WWC students for regular (typically weekly) direct service with community organizations.

• Community-Engaged Courses

As part of WWC’s experiential learning model, WWC faculty partner with community organizations doing work relevant to a specific course (also known as service-learning).

• Community-Engaged Research

WWC faculty and students partner with community organizations to conduct qualitative and/or quantitative research beneffing the organization and the broader community.

• Individual Internships

Students may participate in internships ranging from 50 – 80 hours, and sometimes more. 80 hour internships are typically academic credit-bearing, and require a more in-depth learning agreement with the community partner.

• Community Engaged Work Crews

WWC student work crews form partnerships with community organizations aligned with their work (such as the WWC Garden Crew or the Community Oriented Regeneration Efforts Crew).

• Local Fall or Spring Break Trips

Students spend their fall or spring break learning in depth about a specific social issue with local community partners.

Community Partners

Warren Wilson College partners with over 200 organizations locally, nationally, and around the globe to carry out our community engagement work.

Some of our core partners in Western North Carolina include:

Mission Statement

Community Engagement at Warren Wilson College is committed to providing meaningful, ethical, participatory, and community-driven experiences to students whereby mutually beneficial support is offered to non-profit community partners while yielding enhanced critical consciousness and vocational discernment in students. This exchange will consistently be guided by our commitment to inclusive excellence in the following ways:

• Reciprocity: programming is guided by mutual benefit, and is asset-based and participatory in nature.
• Accessibility: all students, partners, and beneficiaries are given equitable access to opportunities and services.

Critical Consciousness: all community engagement experiences will be framed with preparation and reflection that utilizes social justice pedagogy to support enhanced critical awareness of self and community.