Welcome to NERLab!

By Riley Londraville and the NERLab Team

Welcome to NERLab, we’re happy you’re here. 

I understand that what we do—and even our acronym—isn’t exactly easy to grasp upon being first introduced to us, so allow me to further explain our initiative.

The Neighborly Engagement Research Lab originated from a need to examine and better understand the relationship between Providence College, the place we call home, and the broader 02908 communities in which the college resides: Elmhurst, Smith Hill, and Wanskuck. The NERLab does not have a definitive end goal, and instead sees our work's purpose as the dedication to these neighborly connections themselves. We follow a relational process, focused on the building of relationships and the sustained efforts it takes to maintain them. In our most recent publication, I think we said it best:

“The NERLab at PC is built on a simple but powerful idea: colleges and universities should see themselves as neighbors to the communities that host them for their engaged work.” (LaDuke et al., 2025).

Campus presentation at the PC Galleries (December 2024).

Under the guidance of Dr. Carmine Perrotti, members of the NERLab attend and participate in local ward meetings throughout the 02908 neighborhood to gain insight into community-driven ideas, concerns, opinions, and more. Additionally, in being a part of these meetings, as well as other community events, you get to know some friendly faces, and we’ve found that relationships and connections can blossom from these small instances: just showing up truly makes a difference. All of our work would not be possible without “the community,” and so for both the insight and the connections we’ve made, and will continue to nurture, we are forever grateful. 

Presenting our research at Compact25 in Atlanta, GA (March 2025).

Last year, we interviewed 20 local residents and collectively engaged in over 100 hours of community meetings and events, all guided by the question: What are neighborly principles and practices for higher education community engagement, as defined by residents themselves? In response to what we’ve learned, we’re supporting community-driven initiatives and working to reimagine what it means for campuses to engage with their neighbors—as neighbors.

We hope this website can be used as a landing page for our work and all things community-campus related, and more. I encourage you to play around, explore our About section for more details surrounding the lab, and also get to know each of our members under the Team section. You can find community-wide events, along with campus events open to the public, on our Community-Campus Calendar. If you scroll down, you’ll also see the athletics schedule and additional public resources. In our conversations with community members, we consistently heard a desire for a clear platform to show which areas of campus are open and accessible to the public. These sections of our website were created in direct response to that need, providing straightforward information to strengthen connection and accessibility.

Taste of 02908 community event (September 2025).

We have exciting plans for the future of our site, including the creation of a small business map to highlight local businesses and vendors, as well as this blog!

I’m incredibly excited to announce my upcoming blog series, which will extend throughout this academic year. I will be writing portraits of community members that I had the pleasure of speaking to and learning from over the past year, in hopes of highlighting what it means to be a good neighbor and community-identified priorities. We would love to invite guest writers to post on this blog as well, so if you’re interested, please find our contact page and send us a message.

Again, thank you for being here. We look forward to what the future has in store for NERLab, the community, campus, and the meaningful connections we’ll continue to foster together.

Works Cited

LaDuke, K., Londraville, R., Quigley, C., & Perrotti, C. (2025). The Power and Importance of Reciprocity in Community-Engaged Research: Centering College Students’ Beliefs. In J. Duggan, K. C. Cliente Skendall, S. Patterson, & G. Weatherford (Eds.), New Directions for Student Services: Volume 2025, Issue 189-190. Wiley.

Riley Londraville is an undergraduate student in the Class of 2027 at Providence College, double-majoring in Creative Writing and Public and Community Service Studies, with a minor in Political Science. She is a Research Fellow in the Neighborly Engagement Research Lab (NERLab) at Providence College.