Watch a professor explain community-engaged research in 101 seconds
"We can’t actually learn without actually including not only the voices but the knowledge of the people in the community,” says UC Berkeley's Lisa García Bedolla.
July 31, 2025
When Lisa García Bedolla was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, she spent time as a tutor in the city’s public school system. It changed her life and her professional trajectory.
“That program was designed to take the energy and excitement of Berkeley undergraduates and have them applied to making life and education better for students in Berkeley Public Schools,” recalls García Bedolla, vice provost for graduate studies and a professor in the School of Education.
“I’m really interested in why people choose to be political, and it just seemed to not make sense to not actually ask the people, who I’m interested in studying, what their thoughts, feelings and engagement are,” says García Bedolla in this 101 in 101 video, a series that challenges Berkeley experts to distill their work into a mere 101 seconds.
As García Bedolla notes in the video, the style of research she was interested in — community-engaged research — doesn’t include a traditional academic ivory tower where research projects, questions and methods are drawn up without input from study participants. Instead, this research method is deeply intertwined with the people whose lives and experiences are being studied from beginning to end.
“It’s really about not just going into the community and thinking you can help people,” she said, “but believing that we can’t actually learn without actually including not only the voices but the knowledge of the people in the community.”
Community-engaged research is present across campus.
In the School of Public Health and School of Social Welfare, researchers have partnered with young people in San Francisco’s public schools to better understand the drivers of chronic student absenteeism. A mechanical engineering professor who studies wildfire has included his students in Bay Area projects that model wildfire risks and help make communities safer. Additional community-engaged projects work to improve farmworker safety, address factors driving youth homelessness and make communities safer for all.
Watch to learn more about why engaging directly with communities creates stronger and more resilient solutions.
Watch more 101 in 101 videos featuring UC Berkeley faculty and experts here.