Abstract
As higher education struggles to prepare students for a rapidly changing work environment, general education is receiving renewed attention. At the same time, due in large part to American Association of Colleges & University's research and advocacy supporting High Impact Practices, community-engaged pedagogies such as service learning (aka community-engaged or community-based learning), have emerged as important strategies for increasing student success. In this environment, general education takes on a variety of sometimes contradictory roles. The success of the Portland State University Studies program in weaving impactful community engagement into its general education curriculum shows the rest of us how powerful evidence-based best practices can be when higher education takes them seriously.