Dispatching a traveling dental clinic to elder care facilities across Iowa. Sending natural history exhibits on the road via a Mobile Museum. Taking visual, literary, and performing arts to small towns and schools. Enlisting Iowans as partners in research. Teaming up with local leaders to address community challenges.

These and other initiatives helped earn the University of Iowa the 2015 Community Engagement Classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching—the nation's highest standard for higher-education community engagement.

"This designation is a reflection of the much greater emphasis the University of Iowa is devoting to engaging students, faculty, and the entire institution in Iowa communities to help students to be better citizens and to impact important community needs," says Linda Snetselaar, associate provost for outreach and engagement.

Click the photos above to see some of the ways UI people are engaging with communities in Iowa and beyond.