Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement
Elise Lael Kieffer, Murray State University
Elise Lael Kieffer, Ph.D.
Program Director and Assistant Professor
Nonprofit Leadership Studies,
Organizational Communication and Leadership
Murray State University
Endowment Funded Experiential Learning: Facilitating Student Engagement
Journal of Nonprofit Innovation: Vol. 4: Issue 1, Article 4 (2024)
This article provides background information on the establishment of an endowment that serves specifically to provide experiential learning opportunities for students in and around the university. This case study may serve as a guide for higher education programs in the nonprofit discipline to promote both active philanthropy and learning for students.
This article provides an examination of student reflections following their participation in an endowment funded experiential learning opportunity with a hope of promoting this teaching method in other nonprofit and philanthropic educational programs. The results of this analysis assist in the development of greater understanding into how the experiential learning component affected student reflections from their time in NLS 305. Additionally, analysis reveals how students understood and interpreted the real-world impact of their grantmaking experience, in comparison to traditional classroom practice exercises.
Dr. Kieffer’s first love was musical theatre. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Jacksonville University (Florida). After graduation, she began a successful career as a performing artist on the East Coast and Midwest. She left performance to return to school for her Master’s in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from Tennessee State University. After earning that degree she moved to New York and worked for an international humanitarian aid organization, specializing in fundraising. While her primary assignment was growing the base of individual donors, she is also remembered for the dramatic growth in funding coming from foundations and corporations under her leadership.
The next chapter in her nonprofit sector journey combined her passion for the arts with her growing commitment to strengthening community engagement and building sustainable organizations. She moved to rural Cumberland County, Kentucky, at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains to found the Burkesville Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA). This interdisciplinary arts education organization offering year-round arts education and performance opportunities for children was launched in rural South- Central Kentucky. BAFA found strong support through local youth serving organizations such as 4-H and the public schools, becoming an integrated part of youth development across the region.
With a long-time aspiration to play a role in the development of leadership and management capacity for those serving the community, in 2017 her family relocated to Tallahassee, Florida, for Dr. Kieffer to pursue her PhD at Florida State University. While studying arts administration, with a focus on nonprofit leadership and management, she focused her research on strengthening rural nonprofit arts organizations. During her academic journey, she has pursued scholarship and engaged in teaching across the leadership and management curriculum. Among her many professional awards, it is worth noting that she was recognized with the Emerging Scholar Award at the International Society on the Arts in Society in 2019, 2020, and 2021. In addition, she received the Emerging Scholars Award at the International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations in 2021.
Upon receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Kieffer joined Murray State University as Program Director and Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership Studies and Director of the Murray State Nonprofit Resource Center. Her textbook “Rural Arts Management,” will be released by Routledge in July.