Explore our Cities and Communities
The Center for Campus and Community Engagement celebrates southeast Ohio and the Appalachian region and is proud to call this place home. The region is filled with unique and vibrant communities and Ohio University’s many campuses. In 2017, former President Nellis named “enhancing a university engagement ecosystem” in order to “become a positive catalyst of economic and quality of life change for Appalachia” as one of the University’s four strategic pathways.
Close to home—explore our communities
The Center for Campus and Community Engagement encourages all Bobcats to go beyond the bricks of campus, connect with our communities, and support local economies by shopping, eating, celebrating, and recreating locally. Find out what southeast Ohio is all about and what makes it so unique!
In addition to our Athens campus, we offer regional campuses and satellite learning centers across southeastern and central Ohio. Begin your community exploration with the county visitors bureaus in the communities where Ohio University campuses and centers are found.
Explore Appalachia
Southeast Ohio is a unique region in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Located among these hills, rivers, and streams, we are in one the most biodiverse temperate forests in the country. This region has a rich cultural history, and currently has impressive vibrant arts and culture, nationally renowned music events and venues, an energetic locally owned and operated business community, and a multitude of impactful nonprofit organizations.
We encourage all students, staff, and faculty to explore this beautiful region and become engaged citizens!
To learn more about the Appalachian region, check out these resources:
Appalachian Understories: "Appalachian Understories provides guided tours in Appalachian Ohio, hiring local guides, historians, and naturalists to create outdoor experiences for people. Tours allow participants to enjoy the natural beauty of Southeast Ohio while learning about the rich cultural history of the region."
mAppAthens: mAppAthens is project of the OHIO Museum Complex. It is a web-based app for self-guided education.
Curated by OHIO professor Nancy Stevens, this interdisciplinary collaborative project offers online maps that can be leveraged as outdoor museum tours to engage visitors of all ages in active, place-based learning experiences to explore an array of topics including art, wellness, history, geology, ecology, and more.
Visit the website to find suggested place-based learning routes that have been provided by local experts. Explore these tours throughout the region using your mobile device; you will travel from stop to stop, reading information at each location and following the directions provided. You will see photos and a map of your tour route in the app.
Invisible Ground: "Invisible Ground is a multimedia project utilizing audio, augmented reality, visual elements, and place-based storytelling to engage people in the history of their communities. The project was created, and is produced by, Brian Koscho. Starting as a podcast in late 2020, Invisible Ground focused on telling the stories of southeast Ohio communities and its people, places, and events to connect to bigger themes in our region and far beyond."
100 Days in Appalachia: "Appalachia is more than coal fields and country roads — it is a large, complex region comprising 13 states and 25 million people. The region features urban centers and suburban counties that contain diverse stories from the Black Belt to the Rust Belt. 100 Days is designed to share these stories with a global audience as we cover the complicated landscape of American politics through the prism of Appalachia. We work with local voices to apply a cultural lens to what’s happening in our backyards and share what that means for the rest of the world."
Appalachian Regional Commission: "The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a regional economic development agency that represents a partnership of federal, state, and local government. ARC's mission is to innovate, partner, and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia."
