Annual Community Engaged Learning Symposium
20th Anniversary CEL Symposium
Building Better Communities through Belonging
January 30, 2027
9:00 am to 2:30 pm
UT Health San Antonio
Register here by January 24, 2027 to be guaranteed lunch.
Donations, at any amount, are appreciated to help us to continue our CEL programs and keep this event free and accessible to the community. Donate here.
Keynote Speaker
Jennifer L Croneberger
Founder, HUMAN Leadership Institute
Watch a brief video from Dr. Croneberger!
2027 AGENDA
| 9:00-9:45 am | Registration and Coffee with Community Partners (CCP) Music by Duo Americano Latino | AAB Foyer |
| 9:45-10:00 am | Welcome & Opening Remarks Melanie Stone, DrPH, MEd, CHWI, Assistant Professor of Family & Community Medicine and Director of Community Engaged Learning, UT San Antonio | Holly Auditorium |
| 10:00-11:00 am | Keynote: From Isolation to Impact in Healthcare: How Community and Connection Through B.R.A.V.E. Human Leadership Will Steady Us Jennifer L Croneberger, Founder, HUMAN Leadership Institute | Holly Auditorium |
| 11:00-12:00 pm | Panel: Spotlight on Social Connection Moderator and Panelists TBA | Holly Auditorium |
| 12:00-12:10 pm | Break / Pick up Lunch | Holly Auditorium Foyer |
| 12:10-12:50 pm | CEL Blue Ribbon Winner Project Presentations | Holly Auditorium |
| 12:50-1:00 pm | Poster Session Opening Remarks Speaker TBA | Holly Auditorium |
| 1:00-2:30 pm | CEL Poster Session with Dessert Reception | Holly Auditorium Foyer |
Objectives
- To bring together an interprofessional group of UT San Antonio Health Science Center students, faculty, and staff and our colleagues from across the state with community partners to foster service-learning collaborations.
- To share best practices, opportunities, and scholarship in community engaged learning with a focus on exploring how creating a sense of belonging impacts the health of our communities.
- To recognize and reward excellence in Community Engaged Learning Scholars projects.
About the Conference
UT San Antonio is committed to engaging our community to improve health. In support of our university’s service mission, our students use what they learn both inside and outside of the classroom to serve medically underserved communities in San Antonio, across Texas and around the globe. The Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Program provides a structure to engage faculty, staff and institutional support of these activities.
CEL is an experiential education method that integrates meaningful community partnership with instruction, mentorship, and reflection to collaboratively address health needs. Health professional students address community-identified needs while learning about the context in which illness develops, connecting their academic coursework to real-life situations, and reflecting on their roles as future healthcare professionals. At the Charles E. Cheever Jr. Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics, we believe CEL is ethics in action. We are proud of the leadership that our students exhibit and the promise that they will become community-connected healthcare providers who work to reduce disparities and enhance access to care throughout their careers.
The Annual CEL Symposium at UT San Antonio originated in 2008 as an opportunity to learn from the CEL experiences of students, faculty, staff, and community partners in San Antonio and across Texas. Each year, the conference focuses on a theme relevant to service-learning and hosts experts and guest lecturers, provides skill-building sessions, and showcases CEL projects through students’ poster presentations. Presented by Cheever Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics in conjunction with an interprofessional planning committee, the conference is free and open to the community.
