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The Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Conference (SLCE) is a full-day opportunity to share success strategies among students, faculty, and staff at institutions throughout Maryland, D.C., and Delaware on the topics of community service, service-learning and civic engagement.
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Keynote Speaker
Raaheela Ahmed (UMD ‘15) is the elected representative for the Prince George’s County Board of Education, District 5, representing over 80,000 people in Maryland. This lifelong Prince Georgian and product of Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) was elected to office in November 2016 with 57% of the vote from 32,000 supporters without any political establishment support. She first ran for the position in 2012 as an 18-year old, and nearly won.
Over the course of her two campaigns, Raaheela went door-to-door to over 12,000 homes and attended dozens of community events to better understand the needs of her community. As a board member, Raaheela has been a vocal and active advocate for the community, fighting for issues like teacher pay, building maintenance, and systemic supports for marginalized communities. Her efforts have earned her speaking roles at several major, national conferences, as well as news outlets like CNN, FOX, VOA, and The Washington Post. Within the district, she’s zipped around to host or attend over 600 meetings and events in her first 2.5 years on the board, and doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon! Inherently, grassroots, service-based leadership is what she’s all about.
Outside of the board, Raaheela serves as the Manager of Leadership Programs for New American Leaders, where she runs the national network of 500+ local and state level elected officials of immigrant background that are committed to building a more inclusive democracy.
Prior to the school board, Raaheela worked as a federal financial consultant with the Department of Homeland Security. She served as the Student Regent on the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, representing over 150,000 students at 12 universities in Maryland. In Prince George’s County, Raaheela has served as an advocate for foster care youth, founded a financial literacy organization serving county students, and conducted literacy workshops in a dozen county elementary schools. She’s earned a BS in Finance and BA in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she’s also received numerous awards for her leadership and public service.
As a young, first generation American, head-covering Muslim woman of Indian and Pakistani descent, Raaheela has broken stereotypes and expectations across the board of what it means to be a service leader. For more information, or to contact Raaheela, visit www.raaheela.com
SLCE Conference History
In the mid-1990’s, The Shriver Center, UMBC’s center for applied learning experiences, administered a Learn & Serve America grant through the Corporation for National & Community Service for a consortium of area colleges and universities. This grant supported several conferences in the Baltimore area. About ten years later in 2008, UMBC hosted a similar event, “Solutions Through Service.” This event was planned and implemented by members of the Shriver Living Learning Center (SLLC), twenty-nine UMBC students who live, learn, and serve together. UMBC’s Office of Undergraduate Education and the Baltimore Collegetown Network were co-sponsors.
The conference has grown in both size and scope since 2008. Members of the conference’s Planning Committee now include staff and faculty of 15+ institutions of higher education throughout Maryland, DC, and Delaware, as well as community partners and students. Subsequent conferences have been hosted by the University of Baltimore (2009), Towson University (2010), Stevenson University (2011), Coppin State University (2012), UMBC (2013), University of Baltimore (2014), American University (2015), the Universities at Shady Grove (2016), Towson University (2017), and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (2018). The last few conferences have reached maximum capacity (300 attendees).
With the culmination of the 6th Annual SLCE Conference back at UMBC in 2013, then-named Maryland-DC Campus Compact took a greater role in supporting and sponsoring future conferences. It is now a feature event for Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic, connecting faculty, practitioners, and students in the region around service-learning and civic engagement concepts, theory, and practice.
2018 – 11th Annual SLCE
Get Engaged – Be the Change
Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic joined over 200 students, faculty, staff and community members from the region at the 2018 Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Conference at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday, April 7, 2018.
2017 – 10th Annual SLCE
Be the Spark for Action
Campus Compact Mid-Atlantic joined over 200 students, faculty, staff, and community members from the region at the 2017 Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Conference on the Towson University campus on Saturday, April 1, 2017.
2016 – 9th Annual SLCE
Stronger Together
Maryland-DC Campus Compact joined over 300 students, staff, and community member organizations from the region at the 2016 Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Conference held at the Universities of Shady Grove on Saturday, April 2nd, 2016.
2015 – 8th Annual SLCE
Putting Our Passion to Work
Maryland-DC Campus Compact joined over two hundred students, faculty, staff and community member organizations from the region at the 2014 Service-Learning & Civic Engagement Conference on the University of Baltimore campus on Saturday, April 5th 2014.
2013 – 6th Annual SLCE
Community-Based Learning: Getting Real About Civic Engagement
Maryland-DC Campus Compact joined over two hundred students, faculty, staff and community member organizations from the region at the 2013 Service-Learning & Civic Engagement Conference on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus on Saturday, April 6th 2013. Visit the UMBC Breaking Ground website for photos of the event.