Values
The CCE nurtures values in our students and community, including:
- Innovation / Inquiry: We walk alongside students and community members nurturing collaboration and the co-creation of knowledge as we learn and discover new ways to partner, grow, and improve our community.
- Impact: We must do work that is data-driven, community-based, and assessed to ensure it aligns with community goals. It’s not about the intentions we bring to the work, but about the positive change we can foster in our community together.
- Community: We seek to work “with, and not for” our residents, see students as colleagues, build partnerships, strengthen empathy, and assemble coalitions that are focused on sustained, place-based engagement.
- Justice: We seek to move from charity-focused service to justice work, which addresses the systemic causes of need. All people deserve respect and the fundamental rights, freedoms, and opportunities that come with being human.
- Inclusion: We value equity, full participation, and a voice for everyone at the table; it’s not enough to inhabit diverse spaces.
- Sustainability: We don’t seek quick fixes, but strive to address root causes of human and ecological injustice. As an anchor-institution, HPU is in this work for the long-run.
DEI Statement
The CCE commits itself to embody High Point University’s commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through continual reflection and training on our community’s history, our personal biases, and the structural forces of injustice, the CCE will stand with all in our community who experience oppression. We will advance a form of community engagement that values authentic dialogue and partnerships across many forms of difference as we seek to prepare our students to “lead lives of significance in complex global communities.”
This DEI Statement will be actualized through concrete actions, including:
- Regular trainings in anti-racism for all CCE staff and VISTAs
- Learning outcomes that focus specifically on DEI in all Service Learning courses, and regular anti-racism trainings included for all SL faculty
- A Bonner Leader Program that lives up to the Bonner Common Commitments around social justice and diversity, cultivating diverse classes of students who engage each other and the world through these principles
- Robust inclusion of community leaders from marginalized groups in the development of the mission and work of the CCE
- CCE staff lead in organizations in High Point that seek to promote DEI across our community
High Point University’s Commitment to Diversity, Equality, & Inclusion
High Point University considers a strong commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion as a core component of our mission and an essential ingredient to a holistic education in the liberal arts tradition. A liberal arts education develops critical thinkers, moving students from a fixed-mindset to a growth-mindset. This approach to learning prepares students for reflective action in an interdependent and diverse world. We not only understand and respect the unique talents and perspectives of all individuals but we also embrace and utilize their contributions. Our breadth of inclusiveness creates a path by which all individuals can achieve their highest potential in an increasingly complex and pluralistic society.
We welcome and respect all students, faculty, and staff of all races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, sexual identities and gender expressions, abilities, classes, ages, and political ideas. We recognize that diversity also includes a range of geographic locations, communication styles, family makeup, educational background, military service, and other unique life experiences. To encourage diversity and inclusion we endorse dynamic curricula and research agendas—through the university’s core education as well as all fields of study, programming, and community engagement—that include a multiplicity of views and perspectives.
Diversity, equality, and inclusion are not merely moral imperatives or societal goals, they can be a competitive advantage. Our continued success as a university rests in our collective ability to embrace a multitude of opinions, ideas, and beliefs so that we can effectively educate the next generation of leaders who are culturally responsive, knowledgeable, and globally engaged. Our commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion cultivates students’ desire for citizenship in complex global communities.