Penn State Altoona’s Center for Community-Based Studies (CCBS) is the recipient of a Pepsi Challenge Mini-grant awarded through University Park’s Sustainable Communities Collaborative.
Altoona is one of five Penn State Commonwealth campuses to receive the $5,000 award, renewable for three years, to expand and enrich community-based engaged scholarship across the Commonwealth. Other campuses are Abington, Beaver, Behrend, and Brandywine. The grant also brings together teams from each campus to learn, collaborate, and identify funding streams to support sustainability-related initiatives in their respective communities.
CCBS is an interdisciplinary community learning laboratory that facilitates academically-grounded, real-world problem-solving opportunities for undergraduates. Students work closely with organizations and individuals in the community while applying the skills, perspectives, and knowledge gained through formal academic study to issues that matter in our region.