From the edge of the Wayne National Forest to a first-grade classroom in Zanesville, the partners who work alongside Ohio University’s regional campuses took home the honors on Nov. 5, when the university presented its Community Engagement Awards at the Ridges Auditorium in Athens, Ohio University News reported.
The Southern Wayne Advocacy Council was named Ohio University’s Community Partner of the Year, and regional campus partners, faculty and staff took home seven of the evening’s 10 honors, according to Ohio University News. The awards opened Engage OHIO 2026, the university’s Community and Place-Based Engagement Symposium; each Ohio University campus honors one Outstanding Community Partner a year, and one is selected as the university-wide Partner of the Year.
The Southern Wayne Advocacy Council has worked alongside OHIO Southern since May 2023, connecting Lawrence County residents, schools and civic groups with the Wayne National Forest and the campus, Ohio University News reported. With the Ironton Rotary Club and more than 50 volunteers, the council turned a grassy patch at the end of the Ironton floodwall trail into the Pocket Pollinator Garden and Buddy Bench at Storms Creek Park — a gathering space that now serves an estimated 250 to 500 walkers and cyclists each month. The council has also connected OHIO Southern biology faculty with hundreds of fourth graders at the Wayne National Forest’s Forestry Fair and teamed with the university to bring about 100 Lawrence County high school students into riverfront and forest cleanups, according to Ohio University News.
In Zanesville, Principal Stephanie Hilliard and the first-grade team at Zane Grey Elementary School were honored for a literacy partnership with OHIO Zanesville, Ohio University News reported. Senior education majors assessed 21 first graders, analyzed their reading data and delivered targeted reading interventions, while Zane Grey teachers, literacy coaches and administrators served as mentors — a partnership built on a relationship of more than 25 years that expanded this fall.
The other regional honors reached across southeast Ohio. OHIO Chillicothe’s partners at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park were recognized for a collaboration connecting students with the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, including a paid summer internship that has placed a student at the park each year since 2022, Ohio University News reported. OHIO Eastern honored the Captina Conservancy, whose members collected 14 oral histories and co-hosted a Smokey Bear Family Hike that brought more than 80 children and family members to Dysart Woods, one of Ohio’s last remaining old-growth forests. The Athens campus honored Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio, a partner of the university’s Center for Law, Justice and Culture since 2016.
“It inspired me to think about how we tell our story,” Dr. Lewatis McNeal, vice provost for Regional Higher Education, said of attending the ceremony, according to Ohio University News. “How do we talk about the wonderful things that are happening in our communities? How do we uplift people?”
Photo: Wayne National Forest, CC BY