Dear Partners & Friends:

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions. I’ve gone from sad to hopeful, angry to optimistic, and anxious to patient; though it hasn’t been necessarily a continuum. Rather, these feelings come over me in waves—never knowing which might strike next or when. While these emotions may seem counterintuitive, they don’t have to be mutually exclusive; feelings aren’t separated into neat boxes, despite how often I try. This has been the biggest a-ha for me during this strange time.

Maybe your experience has been similar?

I think what we’re going through is grief. We’re mourning the loss of a program we’ve spent all year building; we’re scrambling to learn new modes of instruction and communication as everything goes online; and we’re feeling for our students who’ve had to go home (some of whom are seniors).

While all this is happening in isolation, we want you to know that you aren’t alone. You remain our highest priority, and you have been on our minds.

• Our team is still here (albeit remotely) to make sure you have the resources that will be most helpful for you during this time as you adapt programs, teaching, and learning in the face of COVID-19. We’ve organized these by topic on our COVID-19 and the Engaged Campus page to make it easier to find exactly what you need.

Also, we want to be as flexible as possible and realize that application deadlines might not be top of mind for you right now. With that, we have made some adjustments.

• Funding Opportunities:
  • We have added a June 15^th grant deadline to our High-Impact Community Engagement Practices and Strengthening Communities grants, but we will keep the May 11^th deadline as well for those who still need grant support for summer programs.
  • The Faculty Fellows Program deadline has also been extended to May 11^th.
  • Laura Weaver, our Director of Professional Development and Engaged Learning, has been in contact with current grantees regarding report deadline extensions and budget revisions. If you have any questions related to our funding opportunities, please reach out to Laura at 1-317-274-6500 or laura {at} incampuscompact(.)org.

• Annual Awards –
  • The deadline has been extended to June 15^th.

Lastly, we want to provide a space for you to come together, colleague to colleague. We want to learn how we can best support you, and for you to hear from your peers on what’s worked well and what hasn’t.

• Virtual Conversations – Beginning this Friday, March 27^th, we will host weekly Zoom meetings throughout the remainder of the semester. You can learn more and register here.

This past weekend my friend, the writer Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, shared a Vietnamese proverb that I thought was appropriate for this moment in time: “Good luck hides inside bad luck.”

We will get through this and may very well come out stronger on the other side.

Reflecting on the proverb I’ve realized that I’ve called my nearly 80-year-old parents each day to check in on them (something, I hate to admit, I didn’t do before). I’ve taken the time to break up my day by going on a walk or run. I’m spending more time with my family. While the work remains, I’m finding a new balance that I thought I’d perfected but truly hadn’t. May you find some sort of peace through this as well.

Please know that we are here for you, we see you, and we understand you. Don’t hesitate to reach out.

In service  –

J.R. Jamison, MAEd
Executive Director