The Bringing Theory to Practice Project (BTtoP) is an independent project established in partnership with the Association for American Colleges and Universities, and funded by the Charles Engelhard Foundation with additional support from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavour Foundation and from other foundations, individuals and institutions.
Montclair State University was awarded a grant in July 2007 to develop and implement a demonstration project titled: Expanding Capacity for Engaged Learning across Montclair State University: Building academic, personal, and civic development through a Service Leadership Program. The BTtoP grant provided $90,000 to develop, establish and begin assessment of an interdisciplinary, cross-divisional leadership development program, including a leadership minor. The project’s vision is to engender and institutionalize a philosophy of civic engagement and creative leadership in students, to enable them to develop collaborative solutions to pressing issues facing today’s communities. The strategy for achieving this vision is to build the infrastructure and programming necessary to transform and add to existing resources at Montclair State University, creating an integrated nexus of service and leadership, and utilizing a continuum of curricular engaged learning experiences and co-curricular service and leadership programming.