Each of our ACA member institutions engage with their external communities through a myriad of connections. From student teacher education, health professional clinical placements, internships, and service learning and community engagement projects, to a wide range of educational, cultural, and athletic programs and events open to their surrounding communities, our member institutions make the world beyond their campuses rich laboratories for student learning, for cultivating beneficial community partnerships, and for sharing educational and cultural opportunities with community members young and old.
Most of our member institutions reside in rural or small town settings. They very often serve as beacons for their surrounding communities. We encourage you to explore the (non-exhaustive) list of programs and opportunities outlined below. Where available, links to specific websites are provided.
Alice Lloyd College
The June Buchanan School (JBS) is a private, college preparatory, co-educational school for grades K-12, located on the Alice Lloyd campus. JBS students utilize campus facilities such as the McGaw Library and Learning Resources Center, the Davis Student Center, Campbell Arts Center, campus recreational facilities, the Perry Campus Center and campus food service.
Berea College
Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education
The Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education at Berea College focuses our work on the interrelationship of race and poverty through coalition building. Overall, our goal is to build coalitions for anti-racism in the wider area of Central and Eastern Kentucky.
Center for Excellence in Learning Through Service
The Center for Excellence in Learning Through Service focuses on community service and civic engagement through a variety of ways that include mentoring, tutoring, and social justice advocacy. As an umbrella organization, CELTS hosts a variety of different programs that serve a variety of different groups in our community.
Loyal Jones Appalachian Center
The Loyal Jones Appalachian Center strives to stimulate student and scholarly interest in Appalachian Studies. It serves as one of the nation’s information sources to educate others about the region.
The Berea College Forestry Outreach Center is a flexible space where visitors and the community can come together to learn about the Berea College Forest and the natural world that sustains us. Using a model of community education, Center staff tailor engaging activities to meet the needs of learners of all ages, including school and community groups.
Woodworking School at Pine Croft
The Woodworking School at Pine Croft is a part of Berea College's Student Craft program, extending the college's support of craft to local, regional and national communities. Its instructors range from traditional woodworkers to artists that push boundaries and challenge what traditional woodworking means.
Brushy Fork Leadership Institute
The Brushy Fork Leadership Institute strengthens local and regional leadership in central Appalachia, providing established and emerging leaders with opportunities to enhance their skills, gain innovative perspectives, and create connections with others working on similar issues.
Entrepreneurship for the Public Good
The Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Program at Berea College creates a multi-year, learning experience for undergraduate students to practice and implement Entrepreneurial Leadership in rural communities across Central Appalachia.
Bluefield University
Bluefield's Fine Arts Community School is a community service outreach program that enables local families and students of all ages and interests, including home-schoolers, to explore and study the arts with the guidance of mentors and professionals. Expanding beyond the arts in recent years, FACS also offers instruction in a variety of other trades and skills to reach an even broader audience.
New Opportunity School for Women
The New Opportunity School for Women (NOSW) at Bluefield University is designed to help Appalachian women who have experienced difficult financial and/or personal circumstances to overcome their conditions and pave the way for a new and better life.
Center for Worship Arts
Brevard College
The Paul Porter Center for Performing Arts is Brevard College’s state-of-the-art musical and theatrical performance space. Music and theatre students perform and practice in the 700-seat, acoustically extraordinary Scott Concert Hall. In addition to serving as a performance and academic space for Brevard College students, the Center hosts local and national groups and artists open to the community.
The Brevard Choral Institute hosts for High School choral singers each summer a one-week intensive workshop. Participants attend professional concerts, sit in on rehearsals, perform as a chorus, and take classes in musicianship, movement, diction, and audition techniques.
Bryan College
The Performing Arts Academy of Bryan College exists to provide a variety of musical experiences for Dayton and surrounding communities.
Campbellsville University
Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy
The Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy (KHIPP) promotes discussion on the major issues that impact central Kentucky and beyond through a mix of invited speakers, faculty scholarship, and student-driven research. Of particular concern to KHIPP are earth stewardship, racial and gender equity, and the role of faith in policy making.
The Center for Faith and Ministry connects, equips, and serves the Campbellsville University community and churches to grow their faith and fulfill the Great Commission, focusing on five action areas: Missions partnerships, certificate programs, faith integration, faith communication, and creation of a faith partner network of churches, denominations, ministries, and individuals.
Center for Business and Financial Literacy
Campbellsville's Center for Business and Financial Literacy promotes financial wellness among our student body and serves small business owners in our surrounding communities. Services include career readiness workshops, one-on-one coaching, consulting/mentorship space, assistance in complying with tax filing requirements while providing volunteer and internship opportunities through the IRS VITA program.
Carson-Newman University
Carson-Newman’s Appalachian Cultural Center serves both its campus and the broader community by working to foster and celebrate Appalachian culture through the presentation of exhibits and programs promoting the history and culture of the region; the preservation and appreciation of traditional and contemporary Appalachian arts, literature, and music; the promotion of academic research; and the development of environmental and community stewardship.
Moser Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership
The Moser Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership seeks to attract life-long learners to the prospect of Christ-centered idea formation, business model development and commercial implementation. Using Christian principles and virtue, the Moser Center provides connections and learning opportunities that propel entrepreneurs from concept to commercial success.
Center for Community Engagement
The Center for Community Engagement at Carson-Newman University aids in developing worldwide servant leaders through facilitating participation in community-centered initiatives.
Davis & Elkins College
The Center for Entrepreneurship at Davis & Elkins College utilizes both academic and community outreach programs to address the challenges of entrepreneurship and to foster economic development in the region and the state of West Virginia. The Center provides training programs tailored to the needs of specific groups in the community as well as for non-profit organizations around the region.
Emory & Henry University
McGlothlin Center for the Performing Arts
The McGlothlin Center for the Performing Arts includes the Kennedy-Reedy Theatre, the Black Box Theatre and the Art Gallery, providing venues for lectures, film screenings, theatre, and dance for campus and community.
Project YES Business Innovation Center
Emory & Henry's Project YES seeks to strengthen and advance the ecosystem of the local business community through collaboration with, support to, and education for entrepreneurs and small businesses, with an intentional focus on under-served women, minority and rural populations. It provides a variety of supports for businesses, whether they be in the conceptual stage, already existing, or expanding, and furnishes students with real-world experience as they assist clients with business needs or pursue their own business training and entrepreneurial dreams.
Ferrum College
The Blue Ridge Institute & Museum documents, interprets, and presents the folk heritage of the Blue Ridge region through festivals, concerts, exhibitions and publications.
Johnson University
Greater Knoxville Advisory Board
Johnson University’s Greater Knoxville Advisory Board explores opportunities to connect Johnson’s students, faculty, and staff with the city of Knoxville. The Board includes leaders from education, business, ministry, healthcare, politics, and nonprofits to help the University match regional needs with Johnson resources.
King University
Institute for Faith and Culture
The King University Institute for Faith and Culture aims to cultivate a conversation that is both artful and substantial on issues of Christian faith and culture, creating spaces for students and community members to find friendship and shared purpose.
Institute for Security and Intelligence Studies
The King Institute for Security and Intelligence Studies is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the scholarly study and advancement of security and intelligence issues of regional, national, and global importance among undergraduate students and the broader community.
Institute for Regional Economic Studies
The King Institute for Regional Economic Studies was formed to provide analysis of economic problems and opportunities confronting the region served by King University. It has broadened its mission to build a knowledge base of the regional economy, to inform public and private decision-making, and to provide an opportunity for King students to participate in research projects.
Lee University
Paul L. Walker Center for Pentecostal Preaching
Paul L. Walker Center for Pentecostal Preaching empowers Pentecostal preachers to share the Gospel effectively in today's world. Through teaching ministerial soul health, biblical interpretation and sermon construction, cultural engagement competency, and media technology competency, the Center equips both active and aspiring preachers with essential skills to meet the diverse needs of contemporary audiences.
Center for English Language and Literacy
Lee University’s Department of Language and Literature offers free English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to the community through its Center for English Language and Literacy.
Center for Responsible Citizenship
The Center for Responsible Citizenship aims to cultivate a healthy vision of political life, where “politics” is a framework of dialogue, mores, and institutions that teach what it means to pursue the good life, together - guided and informed by a deep commitment to the Christian faith.
The Leonard Center partners with various organizations to give students the opportunity to engage in a high impact learning experience while promoting the mission of community organizations.
Persons aged 60 or older and invited to be Encore Scholars to enrich their lives through courses at Lee University.
The Office of Community Relations seeks to serve and develop involvement and relationships between Lee University and the surrounding community, identifying community needs that the University can fulfill, provide representation within the greater community, and create an outlet for community members to express concerns or praise to the University.
Lee Theatre performances are open to the greater Cleveland, TN community.
Music and Ensembles for Community
Lee University furnishes a wide range of fine arts programs open to the community, including its Presidential Concert Series and its Chamber Music Ensemble.
Lees-McRae College
Dan and Dianne May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
The Dan and Dianne May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center annually admits more than 1,500 injured and orphaned wildlife patients from the western part of North Carolina, where staff and students aim to provide outstanding care for every patient that comes through the doors.
John B. Stephenson Center for Appalachia and Comparative Highland Studies
The John B. Stephenson Center for Appalachia and Comparative Highland Studies promotes understanding and appreciation of the Southern Appalachian region through education, outreach, scholarship, and artistic activities.
New Opportunity School for Women
The New Opportunity School for Women at Lees-McRae College improves the educational, financial, and personal circumstances of low-income women—usually between the ages of 30–55—who live in or hail from the Southern Appalachian region. The curriculum is designed to foster skills that will help them approach life and work from diverse perspectives.
Lenoir-Rhyne University
Institute for Faith and Learning
The Institute for Faith and Learning provides programming that contributes to and enriches a culture of intellect that is theologically based, directed at Christians of all traditions. The institute offers a speaker series featuring prominent religious figures and authors who share their work and beliefs.
The Solmaz Institute works to address child and adolescent obesity in the region, offering clinic services, outreach programs, and interdisciplinary internship opportunities for students in Lenoir-Rhyne’s College of Health Sciences.
Center for Lifelong Learning at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
The Center for Lifelong Learning at Lenoir-Rhyne’s Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary provides ongoing practical and theological education through multi-faceted programs grounded in theology and research-based practices.
Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Visiting Writers Series provides each year outstanding literary arts programming that is free and open to the public.
The Senior Bears Program connects community members to the academic and cultural opportunities at Lenoir-Rhyne. Open to all adults 55 and older, the program includes many perks, including access to the campus library and course auditing.
Lincoln Memorial University
Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum
The Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum at Lincoln Memorial University collects, preserves, and exhibits artifacts and archival materials concerning Abraham Lincoln, his contemporaries, the American Civil War, and the study of Lincolniana. It provides workshops, seminars, forums, courses, outreach programs, and research opportunities for individuals and groups to examine the life of Lincoln, the field of Lincolniana, and the themes and forces that contributed to the era of conflict of the Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln Center for Leadership and Public Policy
The Abraham Lincoln Center for Leadership and Public Policy provides an intellectual environment to encourage research and study into leadership theory, ethical practices, and public policy making. The Center seeks to raise public awareness of the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln and inspire civic engagement through Lincoln’s enduring example of values-based leadership.
The Appalachian Reading Series features authors who hail from or live in the region or are associated with areas of outmigration, or who write about or are inspired by Appalachia and Appalachian culture or similar cultures.
Arts in the Gap is an art program run in conjunction with Lincoln Memorial University and the town of Cumberland Gap Tennessee, cultivating artists, embracing Appalachian culture, and connecting communities. The program hosts workshops and performances that help engage participants in our area’s cultural and creative practices.
Mountain Heritage Literary Festival
The Annual Mountain Heritage Literary Festival furnishes attendees opportunities to participate in a variety of courses covering different genres and aspects of writing, including fiction, memoir, poetry, horror and crime writing. Activities include workshops led by experienced instructors and industry professionals, as well as writing contests and public readings, providing attendees with opportunities to showcase their literary talents and engage with fellow writers and readers.
Lindsey Wilson College
Lindsey Wilson's Center for Entrepreneurship assists in the creation and growth of new for-profit and non-profit organizations, enhances the education of students with real-world experience, and fosters partnerships among students, faculty, and business leaders to improve the economic culture of the surrounding community.
Mars Hill University
The Weizenblatt Gallery at Mars Hill University hosts exhibitions of work in a variety of styles and mediums by artists of local and national prominence.
Liston B. Ramsey Center for Appalachian Studies
The Ramsey Center houses archival resources—photographs, manuscripts, sound recordings, and artifacts—that document aspects of mountain life and culture of interest to scholars here and abroad. It highlights through events, festivals, and exhibitions, as well as the ongoing work of dedicated scholars, teachers, students, and community members, the history, culture, and environment of the Southern Appalachian region.
Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre
The Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre is a professional theatre company in residence at the historic Owen Theatre in Mars Hill, North Carolina. For over 50 years, SART has produced scores of original works, plays, and musicals portraying the rich culture and heritage of Southern Appalachia.
The Lunsford Festival is an all-day festival celebrating regional music and dance traditions. The event is the second longest-running folk festival in Western North Carolina. The festival promotes the music of the Southern Appalachians, bringing out the region’s finest musicians, ballad singers, and dancers.
The Rural Heritage Museum on the campus of Mars Hill University collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets artifacts relevant to the history and culture of the Southern Appalachian region, particularly from the 1800s to early 1900s.
Center for Community Engagement
The Center for Community Engagement establishes and maintains mutually beneficial partnerships with nonprofits, international non-governmental organizations, and government agencies that furnishes opportunities that promote student learning through community service, responsible citizenship, character development, and connection to the world of work.
Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership
The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership program at Mars Hill University offers experiences that will help students develop the mindset, skills, and strategies needed to think like an entrepreneur. Students receive extensive exposure to business partners and work real world problems.
Maryville College
As a gathering place for the community and as the home of the Maryville College fine and performing arts program, the Clayton Center for the Arts provides educational opportunities designed to attract and nurture artists of all ages. The College's Concert Choir, Community Chorus, MC3 Band, and Orchestra are open to community members, in which they perform alongside students creating a collaborative and enriched musical experience for both groups.
The Downtown Center is a hub for the College’s new Hospitality and Regional Identity major and Fermentation Sciences minor, serving students, as well as businesses and community members through external events, lifelong learning and continuing education classes, and economic development initiatives.
Maryville Adventures in Studying Theology
Maryville Adventures in Studying Theology is a Lilly Endowment-funded resource that strengthens youth ministry by offering educational programming that deepens theological investigation, builds leadership capacity, and fosters an intentional community of youth, youth ministers, and lay leaders.
Center for Community Engagement
The Center for Community Engagement serves as a hub for students to apply their learning through meaningful partnerships with local, regional, and national communities, fostering mutual growth and developing vital skills in civic engagement and social responsibility.
Margaret M. Cummings Conversations
The annual Cummings Conversations on Faith, Learning, and Service provide a platform for the college and local community to engage in discussions about faith and responsible living, featuring guest speakers and music as highlights of the series.
The Maryville College Woods is a multi-use Stewardship Forest, vital for curricular and co-curricular functions and community recreational and educational groups.
Milligan University
Institute for Servant Leadership
Montreat College
RETR3AT Cybersecurity Conference
Montreat College hosts the RETR3AT Cybersecurity Conference annually, engaging, educating and raising awareness about cybersecurity in Western North Carolina.
Calvin Thielman Lecture Series
The Calvin Thielman Lecture Series provides challenging lectures that enrich the intellectual and spiritual life of the community.
Tennessee Wesleyan University
The Kilbride Nature Sanctuary sits along the Tennessee River in Dayton, TN, with a mission to educate future generations on environmental sustainability and native species, to promote outdoor leadership and recreation for students and to protect historical property and wildlife.
The LITE House is a community collaboration in partnership with Tennessee Wesleyan University to grow and enrich the entrepreneurial community. From business workshops to teen entrepreneurial camps, the LITE House offers programming to support entrepreneurs of all ages.
Tusculum University
The Doak House Museum collects, interprets, researches, preserves, and exhibits the original Doak House, college related artifacts (since 1794), Doak family artifacts (1830-1860), and educational and religious artifacts and documents from Northeast Tennessee.
President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library
The President Andrew Johnson Museum and Library at Tusculum University is the presidential library and museum for Andrew Johnson.
The Tusculum University Center for the Arts provides cultural leadership by supporting arts programs and encouraging the public in supporting the arts and arts education. The Center houses Arts Outreach, the Clem Allison Gallery, the Costume Shop, GLAWPIGT, Theatre-at-Tusculum, The Tusculum Review, Tusculum University Bands, and Tusculum University Community Choir.
Tusculum University’s Center for Civic Advancement provides opportunities for students and the greater university community through civic programing, community partnerships, and service opportunities throughout east Tennessee.
The Freedom Center
Union Commonwealth University
Union's Boys and Girls Club are part of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Appalachia. It provides an on-campus, after school programs and other activities for young boys and girls under the tutelage of trained staff.
The Union Commonwealth Center for Health & Learning provides its campus and the surrounding community access to an Olympic sized pool, fitness center, and meeting spaces for community events.
University of Charleston
Innovation Center and Downtown Hub
The University of Charleston Downtown Innovation Hub is home to Charleston’s only business accelerator program, contributing to the economic growth of our state. Participants work with expert staff in key areas of business success and receive personalized mentorship. On campus, the Innovation Center offers technology-infused space with room for students to study, learn, explore, and discover.
University of the South
The Beecken Center, a part of the School of Theology of the University of the South, is a resource that offers experiences, curricula, and tools for adult and youth lay theological education, hospitality and evangelism ministries, congregational development, and spiritual formation.
Center for Religion and Environment
The Center for Religion and Environment fosters conversation around the increasingly rich relationship between religious belief and environmental awareness and care. Its programs and projects bring the best insights of environmental sciences, humanities, and faith to religious leaders and communities.
The Sewanee Music Center is an artistic incubator where talented musicians work closely with renowned artist-faculty in an intensive yet supportive environment. Its international festival welcome students from across the country to the domain each summer on the University of the South campus.
The Center for Southern Studies at the University of the South is committed to rigorous interdisciplinary explorations of the Southern past, confronting the region's moral and practical failures as well as its achievements, in the hopes of informing a thoughtful critique of the present and an imagining of possible futures.
Babson Center for Global Commerce
The Babson Center for Global Commerce is dedicated to the business challenges of our time, encouraging rigorous scholarship and applied practices. The Center offers a range of opportunities inside and outside the classroom to work with faculty, students, and business leaders to understand and explore contemporary business issues.
The University of the South sustains a range of civic engagement programs, working in partnership with local, regional, and international community organizations to design and implement collaborative projects.
Warren Wilson College
The Kittredge Arts Center provides a centralized location for all the arts at Warren Wilson College and western North Carolina. The Center provides a variety of music, theater, and dance programs and other events throughout the year.
The Swannanoa Gathering are Warren Wilson College’s educational program of summer folk arts workshops held on our campus in the Swannanoa Valley near. Each year, the program offers a variety of week-long programs in various forms of folk music and dance over a five-week period in July and August, taught by some of the finest folk artists and instructors in the world.
Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas
The Chamber Music Society of the Carolinas, hosted at Warren Wilson College, is a chamber music festival fostering shared experiences through a series of concerts of world-class chamber music each summer. Performances take place in small venues creating a close interaction between performer and listener cultivating a shared love of music.
The Center for Working Lands at Warren Wilson provides an opportunity for students to learn about and experiment with practical and innovative land management practices that integrate ecological services with economic and social returns. Through outreach to regional landowners the Center collaborates on research and the development of land management solutions that strengthen the ties between human and non-human communities for the benefit of both.
Center for Experiential Learning and Careers
Warren Wilson College’s Center for Experiential Learning and Careers houses the Work Program, Community Engagement, Internships, and Careers. The community engagement office hosts many community facing events, opportunities for student connection through community-based research and community-engaged courses, and supports student engagement in local and regional community organizations.
Inside Out at Warren Wilson College
Inside Out brings together incarcerated (Inside) and non-incarcerated (Outside) students for engaged and informed dialogue allowing for transformative learning experiences. Inside Out at WWC collaborates with the Western Correctional Center for Women and offers Warren Wilson credit-bearing courses within the correctional facility for both inside and outside students.
West Virginia Wesleyan College
Arts Alive!
West Virginia Wesleyan College’s Arts Alive! brings regional acts to campus such as Shakespeare touring companies, dance exhibitions, and more, offered free to the campus and broader community.
Center for Community Engagement & Leadership Development
The Center for Community Engagement & Leadership provides opportunities for transformative learning and community engagement with the intent to promote positive social change. Community partners provide support for Wesleyan Service Scholars and other students who volunteer in the community.
Center for Restorative Justice
The Center for Restorative Justice at West Virginia Wesleyan College has a vision to participate in the difficult, joyful, necessary work of healing hearts, minds, bodies, and communities through restorative justice convictions and practices. The work of the Center emphasizes settings where there is brokenness, helping stakeholders imagine and implement ways of dealing with harm and trauma that resist the impulse toward retribution and punishment.
Sleeth Gallery is a contemporary art space on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College, open to the public. The gallery hosts a number of exhibits and presentations each academic year from guest artists and students.
Wheeling University
Institute for the Study of Capitalism and Morality
Wheeling University’s Institute for the Study of Capitalism and Morality addresses the ways in which the foundations and principles of morality are, can, and should be integrated into free-market capitalism, serving as an interactive public forum designed to invite civil and diverse debate among philosophers, economists, theologians, business professionals, academicians, students, community leaders, and the public at large.
The Appalachian Institute at Wheeling University promotes research, service, and advocacy for and with the people of Appalachia to build healthier, stronger, and more sustainable communities. Rooted in Jesuit tradition, the Institute facilitates conversation around topics pertinent to the region, including public health, environment, energy, culture, and community development.
Young Harris College
The O. Wayne Rollins Planetarium at Young Harris College features a state-of-the-art GOTO Chronos Space Simulator star projector, a device that uses light guide technology to project a realistic and beautiful starry sky. The Rollins Planetarium offers public shows and educational opportunities for school groups throughout the year.
The Campus Gate Art Gallery hosts exhibitions by nationally recognized professional artists throughout the year, ranging from contemporary mixed media presentations to traditional arts and crafts.
Each season, YHC’s theatre company presents a full lineup of notable productions available to campus and community, including full-length musicals, innovative dramas, classic plays, children’s shows and more.
