Strengthening Community

Building on 150 Years of Collaborative Partnerships

Since our founding on Oct. 12, 1872, The University of Toledo has been committed to serving our community. As a public research university, UToledo is proud to engage in partnerships that strengthen our region and prepare graduates to be engaged citizens who make an impact in communities around the globe.

Medical students attentively listening to a patient in a CommunityCare Clinic

Each year teams of students in the Jesup Scott Honors College partner with area nonprofit agencies to improve their services through a community engagement course, now in its fifth year. Projects have included bringing preschool programs to underserved communities and increasing accessibility of services for people with disabilities.

A teacher reading a book to a group of young children.

A local 6-year-old girl with a rare genetic disorder called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome has a new walker to live more independently created by College of Engineering students as their senior design project. In spring 2022, more than 200 students teamed up with local businesses, industries and federal agencies on projects to help solve technical and business challenges.

Engineering students guiding a disabled child in a device that assists with walking.

Through the student-run CommunityCare Clinics, students in the colleges of Medicine and Life Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Health and Human Services deliver quality healthcare to underserved populations reaching thousands of patients each year.

A medical student attentively listening to a patient in a CommunityCare Clinic

With a rich history of training students for successful careers in public interest law, the College of Law’s legal clinics are opportunities for students to gain real-world experience providing legal services at low or no cost to community members in areas of civil advocacy, immigrant justice and tax controversy.

UToledo student-athletes are committed to giving back to the community that cheers for its Rockets through events like Victory Day, when students with special needs join the football team for drills, and by volunteering with the Boys and Girls Club, Cherry Street Mission, local elementary schools, and other community events. In recognition of its excellence in academics, athletics and community service, UToledo received the 2022 Mid-American Conference Cartwright Award.

Rocket football players celebrate a touchdown with a young participant in their annual Victory Day.

From couches and refrigerators to bikes and beer cans, more than 35 tons of trash have been removed from Toledo area waterways by UToledo students and employees during the past 18 years of annual Clean Your Streams events. Started in 2004, the event has brough together more than 3,200 Rocket volunteers to improve rivers and streams.

UToledo students and faculty removing trash from the bank of a stream.

The Klar Leadership Academy in the John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation partners with Feed My Starving Children each year to pack nutritious meals for children in need. More than 800 volunteers participated in the 2022 event assembling more than 163,000 meals to feed families in Ukraine and other areas around the world.

Two volunteers smiling while they pack meals together.

UToledo students perform some 40,000 hours of community service annually, volunteering their time beyond the hours they give back through student teaching, clinicals and unpaid internships. Students organize an annual Big Event, the University’s largest, one-day, student-run service project, to donate their time and efforts to the area.

Students working together to haul a tarp holding a large pile of fallen tree branches.

UToledo launched a new initiative in 2022 to enhance its community engagement efforts naming Valerie Simmons-Walston to serve as special assistant to the president for community engagement and strategic partnerships.

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