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Student volunteers clean up Mississippi river

About the Center

At the Center for the Common Good, we believe learning is a catalyst for personal and social transformation. When we work collaboratively with community partners to better understand today’s greatest challenges, we become more deeply informed on how to make a positive impact and advance the common good.

The Center for the Common Good promotes collaborative curricular, co-curricular, and community-based research initiatives that address civic and community challenges. We encourage and support students, staff, and faculty to be transformational partners who work tirelessly for social justice in our local, national, and global communities.

Contact Us

Anderson Student Center, Suite 207
2115 Summit Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105

commongood@stthomas.edu

Students pose in front of waterfall

How We Work

We integrate community engagement into the fabric of life at St. Thomas by connecting students, faculty, and staff with opportunities to learn with and from our community partners, research complex social issues, and contribute to collective solutions.

We do this through three primary initiatives:

  1. Tommies Together Volunteer Center 
    Connects students and the whole St. Thomas community with co-curricular volunteer and learning opportunities in collaboration with community partners.
  2. Academic Community Engagement 
    Connects faculty and students with curricular opportunities in collaboration with community partners.
  3. Changemaking for the Common Good 
    Connects the students and the whole St. Thomas community with informed and collaborative solution-based initiatives addressing social and environmental challenges.

We use to help St. Thomas community members discover unique engagement opportunities at St. Thomas and log their community engagement hours.

Student Experience

As a tutor, Julia worked with middle school students in a St. Paul school.
Tommie Award Nominee Julia Pohlman

Julia Pohlman, Tutor

“Many of the students I worked with were just learning English after immigrating to the United States and learning about their native cultures was enlightening. It gave me great perspective on some of the challenges local immigrant populations face. I now have more drive to work with our local immigrant and refugee population.”

Support Our Mission

Give to the Center

Your donation will go directly towards making an impact on the lives of our students. Change students’ lives even more by donating a new vehicle so they can travel to the hundreds of community engagement opportunities we sponsor in the community each year.