Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

Fork to Farmer is a state-level initiative that celebrates small farmers through the production of short films. These films highlight the work of the small farmers and provide a marketing tool which helps increase farm sales and tourism. Fork to Farmer collaborates with local tourism offices, local food providers and restaurants, and NC Extension partners to produce the videos. Many celebrated chefs are also involved to promote farm experiences and local products. Fork to Farmer offers training programs for small farmers and builds marketing coalitions to elevate their sales.

The Fork to Farmer initiative in Nash County highlights the work of local farmers who provide hands-on experiences for visitors. The initiative also promotes restaurants, such as Koi Pond Brewing Company, that source ingredients locally. The Fork to Farmer website provides information on where to buy farm products at local farmers and artisans markets.

Fruit and Vegetable Image, August 14 2019, Copyright NC State/Marc Hall

Through this ongoing partnership between Engineering Place and the Marbles Kids Museum, NC State’s Engineering Ambassadors introduce young learners to engineering problem-solving. Gadgets and Gizmos offer hands-on, open-ended activities that encourage kids from pre-K through 3rd grade to develop their Engineering Habits of Mind thinking. These young learners and NC State Engineering Ambassadors, work together to solve fun activities, along with building cultures of inclusion that will contribute to a strong pool of future engineers. 

In March 2022, the workshop “Celebrating Women Engineers” focused on the many contributions women have made to engineering, science and society. Ambassadors introduced students to women who have made engineering advancements that enhanced life and well-being for us all.

Fermentology is about the culture, history, and science of fermented foods. The chapters in this open digital collection include the NC State Department of Applied Ecology’s public mini-seminars along with essays and transcripts of the talks that thread in media, interactive elements, and links to other resources. The goal is to extend and enrich the lectures, inviting interested members of the public to engage with the ideas presented.

This project was a collaboration between the NC State Department of Applied Ecology’s Public Science Lab and the NC State University Libraries.

Image by Pixabay is licensed under CC Copyright Only Dedication. 

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems' (CEFS) Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE) Collaborative is a professional development hub that works to connect early childcare systems with local food resources. An instructional series of presentations, the Virtual Learning Burst Series, is one of the many ways that they provide resources for early childcare centers. The Virtual Learning Burst Series aims to promote skill sharing across communities, increase access to healthy and local food, and create a culture of health and wellness. These workshops are offered free-of-charge to all Collaborative members and also to early child care educators and directors across six North Carolina counties.

In August, the Farm to ECE Collaborative is hosting virtual educational workshops on cooking for early childcare professionals and other community partners. Michelle Estrada from the Wayne County Cooperative Extension Office covers topics including awareness of food and cooking cultural differences, the benefits of using foods and cooking activities in early childcare settings, and how cooking and food activites can help children learn STEM skills.

Image courtesy of the Farm to ECE Collaborative, NC State University, 2022.

Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions is a multidisciplinary experience created for all incoming first-year and transfer students and their families. Each year, this course focuses on a current "wicked problem," defined as a highly complex problem that can only be addressed through collaborative, multidisciplinary efforts. The free course explores possible solutions through the perspectives of NC State scholars representing many different areas of study and reflects NC State's commitment to the inclusion of individuals and ideas from a broad diversity of backgrounds and experiences. The videos and podcasts from this course are openly accessible to educators, prospective students and their families, alumni, and the general public as an educational resource and showcase of NC State work.

In 2022, the focus of Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions is the Future of Food. In this course, presenters consider food production, equitable food distribution, ethical food decision making, and how food will be produced in the future. This course covers many topics including the history of food, its cultural contexts, sustainability, and more. Students learn directly from NC State faculty who contribute to diverse solutions around the world and can earn two general education course credits for free by participating.

Image courtesy of NC State University, 2022.

Crowd the Tap is a public science program with the aim of ensuring safe drinking water in the United States through education and by empowering people to discover the quality of their tap water from the comfort of their homes. Participants follow directions on the Crowd the Tap website to discover the types of pipes delivering water to their taps and to add their homes to the national inventory of water pipe materials. This inventory helps to build a model which will prioritize areas for tap water testing and infrastructure replacement.

Mentored Open Research Experiences (MORE) is an online research experience for undergraduate students of any citizenship status from any college or university in any country. MORE provides opportunities for students who are systemically and negatively impacted by bias selection and who are often ineligible to apply for federally funded research programs. Students work with faculty mentors and graduate student mentors from NC State University to carry out research with a focus on equity and open science.  Participants receive stipend support, gain training in valuable data science skills, work to address important biological problems, and become part of a community of scholars spanning multiple institutions and nationalities. 

In Spring 2022, participants engaged in online workshops and asynchronous activities to learn basic bioinformatics and data science skills that they will then use to carry out research projects with mentors from NC State. All research results from the MORE program are published on an open science website that serves as an inclusive knowledge-sharing space.

Image Courtesy of NC State University and MORE, 2022.

Green social prescriptions, more commonly known as park or nature prescriptions, are prescriptions written by healthcare providers recommending nature-related activities to their patients. These activities can be specific, such as a 30-minute walk outdoors twice a week, or vague with a general recommendation to spend more time in nature. To understand the impact of green social prescriptions, researchers are collecting data via surveys and studying the difference that time in nature can have on physical and mental health.

Researchers begin by collecting data on the types of organizations that make green social prescriptions. Then approximately 1,000 individuals chosen at random in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are surveyed on their understanding of and experience with green social prescriptions. Researchers also partnered with Kids in Parks to understand how spending time in nature improves the health of children and families.

"A female bicycles around Lake Raleigh on the greenway" by Marc Hall, NC State University 2020.

A team of engineers and computer scientists at NC State University worked with key partners to create ShellCast, an online application for predicting temporary shellfish lease closures. Lease closures are issued by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries as the result of storm runoff polluting coastal waters and potentially contaminating shellfish, which can lead to illness if consumed. The ShellCast tem collaborates with shellfish growers through surveys and feedback forms to ensure their service meets the growers' needs. In 2022, the ShellCast team received a grant to expand the ShellCast application and service to South Carolina and Florida.

Image courtesy of Shellcast, 2022.

Graduate level students in the School of Social work complete year-long internships, totaling 672 hours of service to communities across North Carolina each year. Field placements allow students to practice social work skills under the guidance and supervision of NC State faculty, field supervisors, and experienced social workers. These experiences encourage students to develop, implement, and evaluate social interventions while preparing students to engage in culturally-responsive and equity-driven practices. The School of Social Work partners with hundreds of nonprofits, school districts, health centers, state agencies, community organizations, and more to provide students with high-quality, applied learning opportunities. 

In the academic year 2021-2022, students in NC State’s Master of Social Work (MSW) worked with the Carolina Treatment Center of Fayetteville. Fayetteville's Comprehensive Treatment Center provides outpatient opioid addiction treatment to adults in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area. The center serves adults age 18 and older of all genders who are struggling with an addiction to heroin, fentanyl, prescription painkillers, or other opioids. NC State’s social work students co-facilitated group treatment sessions, managed intake and discharge, and managed treatment with supervision. 

In a cross-institutional project, scholars and artists collaborated to use Henry David Thoreau's preserved botanical samples of plants from the 1850s to demonstrate how the plants in the Walden Pond area are responding to climate change. This exhibition animates digitized specimens from the Harvard University Herbaria's collection of Thoreau's flowers in a data visualization that reflects the contemporary status of the same plants as they exist--or not--today in Walden. The exhibition invites visitors to experience an emotional connection to the profound loss of natural diversity caused by human-induced climate change, while also providing a joyful experience celebrating the beauty of plants and flowers.

Artwork by Leah Sobsey for “In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss” exhibition, Harvard Museum of Natural History,  2022.

Starting in July 2021, Faithful Families Thriving Communities (a program of NC State Extension) held its second annual Virtual Walking Challenge with a focus on reconnection. This four-week free and publicly-available walking challenge encouraged participants to increase how much they walked from week to week, and to try out new ways to connect with themselves, with nature, with their community and with hope.

Participants were surveyed before and after the walking challenge, and the data showed that the walking challenge helped to decrease loneliness while increasing social connections, life satisfaction, and family connections. Participants also reported an improved feeling about their general health. This data will be used to inform other community programs related to health and well-being.

"Students walk by Turrlington Residence Hall during a fall day" by Marc Hall, NC State University, 2021.

As a leading expert on wastewater treatment and environmental engineering, Dr. Joel Ducoste provides open lectures that advance public health and knowledge of more sustainable water and waste management practices. Dr. Ducoste provides specific information about managing fat, oil, and grease deposits that commonly exist in most households. His lectures inform the public on steps that every individual can take to protect wastewater treatment and to prevent sewer overflows, promoting greater science literacy while protecting natural and built environments. 

Throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, Dr. Ducoste partnered with nonprofits and municipalities and gave four lectures. Partner agencies promoted and hosted each event. His partners were: 

• Town of Cary
• City of Raleigh
• Wastewater and Environment Association of Texas (WEAT).

Image by Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Co-Directors Marsha Gordon and Louis Cherry created "Rendered Small", a 15-minute documentary about the private collection of American folk art buildings that have been meticulously curated and displayed by Steven Burke and Randy Campbell in their home in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The first exhibition of this collection took place at the Gallery of Art and Deisgn (which has since become the Gregg Museum of Art & Design). "Rendered Small" is free to view via NC PBS and provides access to these wonderful structures that the public that would not otherwise get to see. This award-winning film has been screened at museums and film festivals around the United States.

Image courtesy of Marsha Gordon, 2022.

In a monthly book club meeting, members of the Pluriversal Design Group of the Design Research Society meet to discuss literature and how it impacts their work as designers. Specifically, the book club promotes pluriversality, which is a decolonial movement of thought that provides counternarratives to traditional ways of thinking that reinforce colonial structures and ideas.

Each semester, the co-chairs of the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group, Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel from NC State University and Dr. Renata Marques Leitão from Cornell University, choose a geographic area of focus for the literature. In the past the focus has moved from Latin America, to the Caribbean, to Africa, and to Asia. Before each meeting, Dr. Noel and Dr. Leitão select the book, often based on recommendations of other members of the group.  The co-chairs and other presenters guide the meeting's discussion by focusing on how the concept of pluriversality impacts designers and the way they work.

The Pluriversal Design Group aims to create intersectional dialogues and to bring diverse perspectives together, while also encouraging practitioners from outside of Europe and North America to write about their research and practice. The book club is one activity to encourage designers to read authors from underrepresented groups, such as people from outside of Europe and North America, women and people of color. The book club meetings are freely available to view on YouTube allowing the general public and other designers to participate asynchronously.

Image courtesy of Pluriversal Design SIG Book Club, YouTube, 2022.