Our Initiatives

The Center is supporting the following collaborative initiatives:

The Community of Inquiry (COI)

The Community of Inquiry at CELSJE consists of undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of disciplines who are committed to exploring both technical skills and applying a variety of qualitative and quantitative inquiry methods to conduct research and answer critical questions studied at the Center.

Leader-Scholar Coaching

The I2I (Inquiry to Impact) Collaborative is a dynamic leader-scholar coaching network connecting doctoral students, postdocs, early career faculty, and professionals from K-12, higher education, consulting, nonprofit, and policy. The I2I Collaborative serves as a bridge between inquiry and practice, creating a supportive ecosystem for educational innovation and professional growth.

The Baltimore Story: Teaching Racial Justice, Teaching Local History

Alum, affiliate faculty, & BCPSS teacher, RaShawna Sydnor collaborated with Stephanie Flores-Koulish to be awarded a $30,000, 3-year McCarthy/Dressman teacher grant to build an anti-racist multi-media curriculum for Baltimore City teachers centered on teaching students local critical history from a counter-narrative perspective. The content, housed in the Loyola-created website, The Baltimore Story, will continue to be developed by Loyola Writing faculty, BCPSS teachers, and other partners.

Esperanza Center Youth Program

With the help of Kolvenbach Grant funding, associate professor of Loyola's School Counseling program, Dr. Qi Shi has developed a mutually beneficial community partnership between her graduate students and immigrant students who need English language services in the Baltimore area. The team is providing their services to the youth participants at the Esperanza Center, a comprehensive resource center whose mission is to welcome immigrants by offering hope, compassionate services, and the power to improve their lives.

LEAD Model

In an example of interdisciplinary engaged scholarship, two Loyola faculty members, Lisa Schoenbrodt, a professor in the speech-language pathology program and Leah Saal, co-director and associate professor of literacy education, created the LEAD Model in 2016 to support individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and/or Developmental Disabilities (ID/DD) to serve as leaders and Self-Advocate Educators/Trainers. Each training consists of both content delivery (existing or created) and scenario-based application of content in either face-to-face or online environments.