Increasingly, graduate and professional students arrive at institutions of higher education with personal and professional commitments to make the world a better place through community engagement; however, departments often do not incorporate outreach and engagement into graduate curricula (Austin & McDaniels, 2006; O'Meara & Jaeger, 2006). As a result, students must seek out supplementary professional development opportunities to increase knowledge, strengthen skills, gain experience, and reflect critically on engagement. In 2008, Michigan State University initiated a competency-based Graduate Certification in Community Engagement to meet the professional development needs of students who aspire to be community-engaged, tenure-track faculty; community engagement professionals; extension educators; or engagement professionals in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. This paper chronicles the evolution and emergence of community engagement competency areas identified through iterative cycles of participant evaluation and alignment with faculty community engagement competencies. In the conclusion, the authors address limitations, potential adaptations, and future directions for these community engagement competencies.