This week at CSCCE, registration is about to close for our next cohort of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF), and we’re celebrating two new grads from our Certification Program!
There’s also still time to sign up for our 11 March book club, at which we’ll be discussing Patrick Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team: https://www.cscce.org/2026/02/10/cscce-community-book-club-the-five-dysfunctions-of-a-team/
CEF is a foundational training designed to meet the specific needs of community managers in STEM (and STEM-adjacent contexts) - professionals working in academia, research, nonprofits, schol comm, and beyond.
We’ve been running 20-25 person cohorts of CEF since 2020, and almost 400 people have completed the training to date: https://www.cscce.org/cef-grads/
If you’re interested in growing as a community professional in STEM, we encourage you to sign up for our next CEF cohort, which begins on Thursday. 19 March (reg deadline is this Thursday, 5 March): https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/scientific-community-engagement-fundamentals-cef26w
If you’re just finding out about CEF now and need a little more time to get sign-off on taking the course, please let us know. You can email training [at] cssce [dot] org to request a deadline extension.
Course DescriptionThis eight-week course is for new or existing community managers who are looking to learn about core frameworks and vocabulary to describe their community and their role within it. We'll be covering key strategic topics such as aligning member engagement with programming - and how to identify the lifecycle stage of your community.StructureThis course consists of a weekly 90-minute lesson where we'll discuss and start to examine core concepts together followed a couple of days later by a 90-minute Co-Lab (cohort + lab = Co-Lab!) where you'll work with other cohort members to apply ideas to your own community.We anticipate approximately 30 minutes of homework between the lesson and the Co-Lab, and no more than 60 minutes of homework between the Co-Lab and the lesson the following week.That makes a total of 3 contact hours per week, plus no more than 90-minutes of homework, for 4.5 total hours per week.Graduation and digital badgeGraduation from the course requires completion of a final assignment. Attendance at social hour and at least 11 of the 12 lessons / Co-Labs (one of which is graduation) is strongly encouraged.Successful completion of the course will result in the award of a digital badge which can be shared online via social media platforms (including LinkedIn) and on your personal website. You will also have the option to be included on an alumni page on the CSCCE website.Please note that graduation from CEF is a prerequisite for participation in CSCCE’s Community Manager Certification Program, unless you have a valid exemption.Winter 2026 course datesOur winter offering of Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF26W) will run on Mondays and Thursdays beginning Thursday, 19 March until Thursday, 7 May.The key dates are:Social hour: Thursday, 19 March at 12pm – 1pm EDT / 4pm – 5pm UTCMonday lessons: 23, 30 March; 6,13, 20, 27 April; 4 May at 12pm – 1:30pm EDT / 4pm – 5:30pm UTCThursday Co-Labs: 26 March; 2, 9,16, 23, 30 April at 12pm – 1:30pm EDT / 4pm – 5:30pm UTCGraduation: Thursday, 7 May at 12pm – 2pm EDT / 4pm – 6pm UTCPricingCSCCE offers rates to reflect the different organizations that community managers work for and the range of budgets that may be available.General rate: $1275 - For non-profits.Supporting rate: $1575 - Aimed at for-profits and others who would like to support the participation of others.Discounted rate: Depending on participants paying the supporting rate, we may be able offer a limited number of discounted tickets for this cohort. If you would like to participate but your organization is unable to cover the whole cost, please complete this course discount request form.Find out more about CSCCE's refund policy.Questions?Learn more about this course on the CSCCE's Community Engagement Fundamentals course webpage. Contact us at [email protected].
The CSCCE
