Quality Enhancement Plan

Amplify Your Impact focuses on leadership and communication for the purpose of advancing community wellbeing. By providing our graduate students with more training and experience in public messaging as producers of knowledge, TWU will foster thought leaders who can help build public understanding and trust on topics that are critical for our collective wellbeing. Our graduate students are future scholars, practitioners, teachers, and leaders in their respective fields. Whether their studies are grounded in health, social equity, education, and/or community change, this initiative will help them learn communication skills critical to educating communities and engaging in informed advocacy. 

Acknowledging that community wellbeing is multidimensional, interconnected, and nuanced across academic disciplines, Amplify Your Impact will build its framework off of the Okanagan Charter, an international charter for health promoting universities and colleges, that charges higher education to advance community wellbeing by being relevant to real-world outcomes (2015). While academic publication is an important mechanism for advancing knowledge, this QEP initiative will focus on more public-facing methods of communication, such as op-eds, podcasts, public lectures/workshops, videos, blogs/ essays, or policy document development. By fostering the communication techniques and strategies of our graduate students, Amplify Your Impact aspires to develop equitable and thriving communities through the advancement of evidence-based, publicly-available information.

Amplify Your Impact aims to meet two major goals over five years starting in fall 2023:

• Student Learning Goal: Improve students’ ability to impact community wellbeing by developing their public communication skills. Student learning will be measured using the following student learning outcomes (SLOs):
• SLO 1: Students will be able to responsibly extend knowledge from academic study to social issues related to community wellbeing.
• SLO 2: Students will be able to apply effective communication strategies appropriate for public engagement.

• Institutional Goal: Develop faculty’s abilities in providing effective instruction in public communication skills.

Gaining Marketable Skills Employers Want

The communication skills connected to Amplify Your Impact, including stakeholder engagement, clear language writing skills, communications, design, social media engagement, event planning and facilitation, and evaluation, are in high demand by employers.

Broaden Opportunities beyond Academia

Public-facing communication skills, such as op eds, podcasting, vlogging, and governmental policy development, are particularly important for graduate students pursuing professions outside academia because of their broader reach.

Stronger Connections within the TWU Community

The emphasis on graduate student belonging through this QEP’s focus on community wellbeing can improve student persistence and reduce imposter syndrome by emphasizing their roles as respected and important members of our campus community.

Next Generation of Teacher-Scholars

For graduate students interested in staying in academia, Amplify Your Impact will teach them value public communication as a central part of their scholarly and public identities. In addition, it will position them to serve as mentors to our undergraduate student population.  

Building Opportunities as Emerging Scholars

By building public-facing communication skills, our graduate students will be better able to disseminate their knowledge to the public in an effort to build public trust and promote community wellbeing.

Training for Faculty

Each fall during Faculty Week, Amplify Your Impact will kick off with a “Thought Leadership Institute,” a multi-day event focused on public communication skill building and methods for integrating these skills in the classroom. Training expertise will come from campus partners and from drawing on existing external resources, such as the national OpEd Project, the Alan Alda Center for Science Communication, and the Center for Public Communication at the University of Florida. Topics will range from those that focus on specific genres (op-eds, public policy briefs, podcasts, etc.) to broader topics like creating a personal brand. In addition, the Health and Wellbeing Initiative will regularly incorporate training in self-care practices as they relate to public scholarship and wellbeing.

QEP-Designated Courses

Each semester, faculty will have the opportunity to submit graduate-level courses for a QEP-certified designation.

Opportunities for Faculty Fellows

Through an annual application process, up to ten faculty fellows will be awarded by (re)designing a graduate-level course to incorporate public communication and earn QEP-designation. Fellows will receive a stipend for attending the Thought Leadership Institute and other workshops, participating in one-on-one mentorship from another faculty member, and teaching at least one QEP-designated course.

Opportunities for Grants

Funds will be available on a competitive basis for faculty to attend external conferences connected to thought leadership, as well as to give related presentations at discipline-specific/professional conferences. Faculty may also apply with a graduate student for QEP grants as a mentor or collaborator.

Media Promotion

Amplify Your Impact will support the thought leadership of TWU community members by soliciting mainstream media publicity and supporting faculty and students in securing public outlets for their work. In addition, a robust YouTube channel and podcast focused on public scholarship in community wellbeing will provide a guaranteed public outlet for student and faculty work.

Access to Equipment and Technology via Campus Hubs

Amplify Your Impact will dedicate physical resources to thought leadership through the development of technology hubs on each campus. Equipment will include fixed items, such as a soundbooth for podcasting, lighting and green screen for video recording, and computers and widescreen monitors for collaboration and editing. Mobile equipment like microphones and cameras will also be available for check out, allowing students more mobility when possible.