Nearly 60 years after developer James W. Rouse set out to build Columbia, Maryland, as a model for civic life and community engagement, Johns Hopkins University students will use the planned community as a living classroom to explore how communities foster connection, participation, and belonging.
In Spring 2027, students in the MA in Nonprofit Management program can enroll in Community Engagement: Tools and Techniques for Making Meaningful Connection (470.904), a new field study course that combines classroom learning with immersive consulting experience. Working alongside nonprofit organizations in Columbia, students will help address real-world community engagement challenges while gaining hands-on professional experience.
Co-taught by Kandyce Sawyer, director of the MA in Nonprofit Management program, and Matthew Castner, director of Population Health at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center and associate faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the course reflects a growing emphasis on experiential learning while strengthening connections between the university and the nonprofit sector.
“This is really about giving students an opportunity to take what they’re learning and put it into practice,” said Sawyer, who has a doctorate in public administration and policy. “I wanted this course to be an experiential, on-the-ground learning opportunity where students could engage directly with organizations, communities, and one another.”
A Community Designed for Community
Columbia, Maryland provides an ideal setting for exploring how communities are built – and how they evolve.
Founded in 1967 as one of the nation’s first planned communities, Columbia was intentionally designed to encourage interaction among residents of different races, religions, and income levels. Villages, green spaces, shared amenities, centralized mailboxes, and multifaith centers were all intended to foster everyday connections among neighbors.
Johns Hopkins has been part of that story from the beginning, as Rouse turned to Hopkins experts for guidance in developing healthcare resources for the emerging community. Decades later, the university deepened its presence by acquiring what is now Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center. Today, Howard County is also home to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, making Johns Hopkins one the county’s largest institutions.
“For this course, we’re looking at nonprofits in the context of civic engagement,” said Castner, who has a doctorate in public health and a master of health administration degree. “How do organizations participate in society? How do they encourage other people to participate in their communities and in government? Columbia is a fascinating place to ask those questions because it was deliberately designed to foster community engagement.”
Castner, who has lived in Columbia for more than a decade, said the community offers students an opportunity to explore both the successes and complexities of intentional community design.
“If community engagement is challenging in a place where everything was designed to support it, what does that mean for communities across the country?” he said. “That’s a fundamental question. We hope students come here, learn from what’s working, wrestle with what’s difficult, and take those lessons back to their own communities.”
Learning Beyond the Classroom
The course will enroll up to 15 students from the nonprofit management program and other interested students across Hopkins’ Advanced Academic Programs division, including those studying public management, government, and organizational leadership.
Early in the semester, students will spend a week together in Columbia meeting nonprofit leaders, exploring the community, and gathering information for semester-long consulting projects.
Working in teams of three or four, students will partner with three to five nonprofit organizations to identify community engagement challenges and develop practical recommendations, such as engagement plans, evaluation tools, and program designs.
“We want students to understand what community engagement looks like on the ground,” Sawyer said. “They’ll meet with nonprofit leaders, have critical conversations about what it means to build meaningful connections, and then spend the rest of the semester developing solutions that organizations can actually use.”
During their week in Columbia, students will receive guidance from a community engagement consultant on conducting organizational assessments, gathering information, and managing consulting projects before beginning their work with nonprofit partners.
At the conclusion of the course, each team will present its findings and recommendations to both classmates and its nonprofit partner.
Building Stronger Nonprofits
Participating organizations are being identified through partnerships with local nonprofit leaders, including the Association of Community Services, a network representing more than 70 Howard County nonprofits.
One participating organization will be Bridges to Housing Stability, which provides housing assistance, case management, and permanent supportive housing services for people experiencing homelessness.
“The reaction from nonprofits has been overwhelmingly positive,” Castner said. “Organizations are excited about having students think alongside them about their community engagement strategies.”
Sawyer said selecting the right organizations has been an important part of designing the course.
“You have to think about the size of the nonprofit, the capacity of its staff, and whether working with students will genuinely benefit the organization,” she said. “We’re looking for organizations where this partnership can create value for everyone involved.”
The long-term vision is to establish an ongoing relationship between Johns Hopkins and the Columbia nonprofit community.
“We would like this to become an opportunity where we’re regularly engaged with these organizations for the foreseeable future,” Sawyer said.
Connecting Learning with Service
The field study builds on the nonprofit management program’s emphasis on civic engagement and nonprofit leadership by giving students an opportunity to serve communities while developing professional consulting skills.
“In our nonprofit management program, I really wanted students to have a chance to give back while they’re at Hopkins,” Sawyer said. “Many of our students already work in nonprofits, volunteer, or serve on boards, but this course allows the program itself to say, ‘We’re doing that too.’”
Castner, whose background includes consulting, public health, and population health management, said the course is designed to give students both structure and independence.
“The ideal student is someone who’s self-directed,” he said. “We’re creating a real-life sandbox where students can pick up the concepts they’re learning across the program and see how they work in practice. We provide the scaffolding, but they’re doing authentic work.”
Learning from One Another
The course also represents a unique interdisciplinary partnership between nonprofit management and public health.
“My work in public health focuses heavily on community engagement,” Castner said. “A lot of what determines health happens outside a physician’s office or hospital visit. There’s tremendous overlap between public health and the nonprofit sector, so bringing those perspectives together creates a richer learning experience.”
Sawyer said the field study complements the nonprofit management program’s online curriculum by giving students an opportunity to engage with communities in person while applying what they’ve learned in the classroom.
“We’ve built a high-quality online degree where students immediately apply what they are learning to their work,” she said. “This course adds another dimension by giving curious, service-oriented students the opportunity to engage directly with communities and nonprofit leaders.”
Castner said the course also gives students a realistic view of the nonprofit sector.
“People who choose nonprofit work are often living at the intersection of their ideals and pragmatism,” he said. “You can’t run a nonprofit on wishes and dreams alone. Organizations are constantly balancing mission with sustainability. This course gives students the opportunity to experience that reality while helping organizations tackle meaningful community challenges.”
Ultimately, both instructors hope students leave Columbia with a deeper appreciation for what it takes to build stronger communities.
“Our students’ passions and values fuel the nonprofit sector in so many ways and many of them are already making an impact through their work, volunteer service, and board leadership,” Sawyer said. “This experience gives them another opportunity to express their commitment to the missions they care about while building meaningful relationships and expanding their professional networks.”
“The hope is students come away inspired,” Castner said. “Maybe they see something that works and take it back to their own communities. Maybe they realize just how difficult community engagement can be. More likely, the answer is somewhere in the middle. If they leave asking better questions – and equipped to help organizations strengthen civic life – then we’ve accomplished exactly what we set out to do.”