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UTEP center brings together students, faculty and nonprofits
By Ryan Poulos |
 Imagine 1,000 college students out in the community, helping people, supporting social agencies, improving the world in which they live.
That’s what UTEP’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) does each year. CCE’s mission is to engage faculty and students through community-based teaching and learning in order to enhance student learning, promote civic engagement and actively improve the El Paso-Juarez region.
The center recruits faculty and students from all colleges, and collaborates with a wide variety of public agencies, schools, non-profit and community-based organizations.
According to Kathy Staudt, CCE’s director, students are connected to nonprofits based on what they are studying.
“Many of the students are political science students, but we have had a number of accounting students that have become connected with local nonprofits,” Staudt said. “We have learned that when nonprofits organizations are recruiting new executive directors, they are looking for people who have at least some experience in managing large organizations.”
She said that students involved with the center learn a number of lessons about how nonprofits work.
“We teach them that the government always has money coming in because there are always tax payers, but nonprofits have to work hard to generate money from multiple streams.”
When it comes to generating revenue, she says that businesses and nonprofits are on the same boat.
“Nonprofits have to be just as creative as businesses in order to find new ways to gain revenue,” she said.
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