School or Unit

HomeGrown STL aids in the development of young, Black males in the St. Louis community. Bringing together key partners, Professor Sean Joe from the Brown School leads this program to provide infrastructure to better inform services and policies with the overall goal of improving outcomes for young Black boys and men.

The Clark-Fox Policy Institute works to advance social and economic justice. The goal is to connect policy solutions to public awareness, practicum training, and policy decision-making. The institute provides students with the opportunity to participate through a number of different avenues: the Graduate Policy Scholars, internship and practicum, and working through the master of Social Policy.

“The Divided City” works to bring humanities scholars into interdisciplinary dialogue with architects, urban designers, landscape architects, legal scholars, etc. This initiative includes a number of different projects such as the Sumner Studio Lab, a lab that runs through the academic year to bring together Sumner High students, WashU students, and Ville residents.

Niños Cambios Puertas is a volunteer program that provides tutoring and mentoring to Latino children in St. Louis. Niños tutors work with elementary school students with homework and reading and math exercises. Cambios tutors work with middle and high school students. While Puertas tutors function as a college preparation program helping students study for the ACT, find scholarships, and create resumes.

This program from the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement focuses on using the arts as a means for social change. Scholars in the program are immersed in arts-based community engagement in the St. Louis area. Participants are encouraged to foster dialogue, mentorship, and action between themselves and the artistic endeavors in the St. Louis area. Previous fellows have worked at the Contemporary Art Museum, the Griot Museum for Black History, and the Shakespeare Festival in St. Louis.

The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE^2) provides an opportunity for three high school students in the St. Louis area to win $500 for their essay on why the study of race and ethnicity is important and for the study of race and ethnicity can benefit students.

The environmental studies impact internship offers WashU students the opportunity to work with St. Louis organizations to positively improve and impact the quality of life through an environmental justice lens.

In early 2018, the Living Earth Collaborative: Center for Biodiversity was launched. WashU partners with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Saint Louis Zoo to advance the center’s mission. The mission includes advancing the knowledge of biodiversity and ensuring the future of the diverse species of earth. Students within the center can participate in research courses and internships that further accelerate the biodiversity work and the relation with these St. Louis areas.

The Creative Community Support programming helps bring together the literary arts and creative practice communities across WashU and throughout St. Louis. This support programming is meant to help foster relationships between faculty from different departments and school, support creative programs on campus and offer an inclusive environment in the literary arts at WashU. Projects include the St. Louis Literary Arts program, offers an up-to-date calendar of literary happenings in St. Louis, and co-sponsorship of events that may happen in the St. Louis area.

The Pivot 314 fellowship provides exceptional resources and support to graduate students who will contribute to the St. Louis entrepreneurial ecosystem. Through the fellowship, graduate students engage with St. Louis entrepreneurial community and explore possible career pathways in the city. Programming is centered around leadership, communication and entrepreneurship, and hands-on experience with a local start up.