Impact Area

CityStudioSTL from the Sam Fox School at WashU supports a number of community engagement, student enrichment, and collaborations that bring students and faculty from different fields together with community partners. Fellowships support students in architecture, art, and design partnering with those in the St. Louis community to conceive, plan, design, and construct projects for local community groups and residents. Faculty can also receive support for community engaged scholarship and courses.

The Resilient Cities initiative from Sam Fox School engages the St. Louis community regarding complex issues of environmental and social resiliency. Current projects focus on the establishment of Peace Park in the College Hill neighborhood and engagement with the Great Rivers Greenway (GRG) Brickline Greenway Project.

The mission of SPOT (Supporting Positive Opportunities with Teens) is to increase access to health care for youth who have been disproportionately impacted by HIV, poverty, trauma, and discrimination. Providing physical and mental health services, this program from the Department of Pediatrics at WashU Medicine partners with youth to create safe and welcoming spaces for them to grow and achieve.

Project ARK at WashU Medicine provides prevention and service to those infected, affected, and at-rise of HIV. Through community education and outreach, Project ARK creates specialized programming to cater to queer and/or POC individuals. The program includes counseling, workshops, and testing services all at low-cost to the participants.

Since 1986, Sam Fox has partnered with the Municipal Commission on Arts & Letters of University City to share their artwork with their community. For students, this poses an opportunity to explore the social aspects of University City and the civic responsibilities of being an artist.

The Sever Institute at the McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU offers traditional and alternative courses for working professionals. It builds on experience to provide technical and leadership skills to St. Louis residents at their own pace.

The Technology & Leadership Center at McKelvey Engineering School provides community members with professional development including training, continued education, and certification specialization.

Studio: TESLA, which stands for Teaching Engineering in the St. Louis Area, serves as an after-school clinic for underserved youth in the St. Louis area. It is WashU student-run and works to build STEAM literacy through hands-on design challenges.

Since 2007, the Alberti Program has brought young people from across the St. Louis region to the Washington University campus for a hands-on experience tackling 2- and 3-dimensional problems in architectural design, with an eye toward the greater environment. They are introduced to the field of architecture through lectures, discussions, and reviews about design projects. They explore campus and connect with WashU graduate and undergraduate students, who serve as teaching assistants.

This joint UMSL and WashU program provides a flexible engineering program for those in the St. Louis community. Students take pre engineering courses through UMSL and take the upper level engineering courses and labs at WashU in the evenings. The program offers three different types of accredited bachelor of engineering degrees: Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Students are able to pay the more affordable UMSL fees while benefitting from both schools.