Elon has been the host site for the national higher education transformation initiative since 2020.
Elon University and Bringing Theory to Practice, a national higher education initiative, have extended their partnership through the end of the 2025 academic year.
Through the partnership, Elon has served as the host site to Bringing Theory to Practice (BT2P), which works to advance holistic and transformative undergraduate education, grounded in active learning, public engagement, preparation for meaningful work, and personal well-being for students from all backgrounds and interests. In promoting these purposes, this national initiative works for fundamental change in academic institutions, the student experience and the relationship between the academy and the larger society.
BT2P moved to Elon during the summer of 2020 as part of a multi-year partnership. Director David Scobey said that during the past two years, many Elon students, staff and faculty colleagues have contributed to the work of the initiative, and BT2P staff teach, mentor and serve on a variety of committees and working groups at Elon.
“We were eager to be on a campus so resonant with the values and goals of our work,” Scobey said of the move to Elon in 2020. “Despite our moving at the height of the pandemic, the university has offered a welcoming and supportive home for us.”
Since its inception in 2003, BT2P has supported innovative teaching and institutional initiatives at more than 350 institutions. It has published books on transforming undergraduate education, civic engagement, and student well-being as a core purpose of college learning.
“Elon, like Bringing Theory to Practice, is dedicated to advancing the educational experience of its students and supporting the development of innovation in teaching and learning,” said Jeff Stein, vice president for strategic initiatives. “Extending our partnership will allow all involved to continue the good work that has been undertaken during the past two years, and to continue to advance transformation in higher education.”
Earlier this year, BT2P launched the Paradigm Project, a multi-year initiative for systemic change in undergraduate education supported by a new grant of $1.5 million from the Endeavor Foundation. The project seeks to help develop new models of holistic, inclusive, engaged education and to catalyze systemic change that realizes them for all students.
“We are excited to be based at a university whose commitment to engaged, experiential, and student-centered education embodies much of what the Paradigm Project aims to advance,” Scobey said. “It is good news that this next chapter in the work of BT2P will also bring a new chapter in our connection with Elon.”
BT2P was co-founded by Donald W. Harward, president emeritus of Bates College, and Sally Engelhard Pingree. It is supported by The Endeavor Foundation, which has generously renewed a multi-year grant for BT2P’s core operations and new programmatic initiatives.