Navigating the Town and Gown Trope: Community Partnerships through Project-Based Learning

Navigating the Town and Gown Trope: Community Partnerships through Project-Based Learning

The Partnership, The Project, The Challenges, The Results, The Lessons, Community Partnerships, Project-Based Learning, Town and Gown

With the impetus of incorporating Project-Based Learning into a business writing course, I partnered with the Lancaster Promise Neighborhood, a community organization in Lancaster, SC with a U.S. Department of Education grant to restore and revitalize “The Hill,” an historically Black neighborhood in this former mill town with high rates of poverty and crime, low-performing schools, and poor health indicators. Student teams revised LPN’s grant narrative, wrote an executive summary, and presented their work to LPN’s staff. While ultimately a success that will lead to future collaboration, I initially experienced resistance to my proposal, possibly mistrust surrounding the idea of work LPN would need to do to meet my goals, rather than mutually beneficial work. How do I, as a university representative who is also white, middle class, and female, extend a hand to create a true partnership and avoid reifying a hierarchy where the university imposes its will? The answer came from the basic rhetorical principle of understanding audience. Trust needed to be established, so I abandoned my need to create a formal agreement on my timeline and, instead, honored their timeline and created a less-intense “pilot” scenario, resulting in a successful presentation day and new partnership.

Amy Spangler Gerald

October 2023

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Navigating the Town and Gown Trope: Community Partnerships through Project-Based Learning

Amy Spangler Gerald, University of South Carolina Lancaster

October 2023

Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference

Spelman College, Atlanta, GA

Humanities