Penn receives national distinction award for University-wide community engagement efforts 

Penn received a national award for community engagement efforts across the University’s 12 schools. 

The American Council on Education and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recognized the University with the 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification last month. Penn will hold the distinction through 2032 alongside over 230 other United States institutions of higher education.

Netter Center for Community Partnerships Associate Director Rita Hodges, a 2005 College graduate and 2024 Graduate School of Education graduate, led Penn’s application process. In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, she said that it is “really exciting” to see how the classification encourages universities to reach “a higher standard” of “community engagement.” 

“They’re … embedding community engagement into the core academic mission — the research, teaching, and learning of the University — as well as emphasizing reciprocal, mutually beneficial partnerships,” Hodges explained. “Those were clearly priorities in this year’s application in particular, and those have been priorities of the Netter Center and the University of Pennsylvania for a very long time.”

Hodges said that there is no limit on the number of universities that can receive the classification, as long as they fulfill a “rigorous criteria,” meaning that the award recognizes their work “in a collaborative, not competitive, way.”

Over 120 people at Penn worked to fulfill the application’s 10-step process, according to Hodges.

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