Since I was a college student some thirty
years ago, my activism has evolved from volunteering
to community service, and from service
learning to community-based research.
Over the years, those of us involved in this
work have experimented with new ideas and
have hoisted banners with different terms, all
meant in their day to suggest that we would indeed
get it right this time--and all inevitably
criticized and replaced for not going far enough.
"Civic engagement" is the term we currently
use to express the promise of a bold and hopeful
vision for significant action that can create
meaningful change. Conceptually, civic engagement
integrates community service and
social justice, as well as local engagement and
global awareness. It compels us to be literate
about public policy and to participate actively
in the political process.
In partnership with the Bonner Foundation,
seventy-five college and university campuses
across the country are working to build and
sustain students' four-year involvement in civic
engagement. These institutions have demonstrated
innovation and excellence in this
area, as well as a commitment to press forward
on their own campuses and to partner with
other institutions. In addition, these institutions
have established service-based scholarships
as part of their relationship with the Bonner
Foundation. Thus, all campuses in the Bonner
program have a core group of students committed
to significant, ongoing involvement in
community issues and to engaging other students
to join with them in such endeavors.
Beginning in 2003, a core group of campuses--the University of California-Los Angeles,
Washington and Lee University, Mars Hill
College, and the College of New Jersey--began
work on the Civic Education Academic
Certificate program, sponsored in part by the
U.S. Department of Education Fund for the
Improvement of Postsecondary Education,
After nearly two years, another dozen colleges
and universities--all involved with the Bonner
Foundation's service scholarship--were
chosen through a competitive selection
process. The diversity of these institutions was
inspiring, with participants ranging from the
University of Alaska Anchorage to Morehouse
College. All of the colleges and universities
participating in the Bonner program will
implement some form of civic engagement
academic journey, and it is our hope that all of
higher education will be challenged by the
work we have done so far.
Backdrop of service, learning,
and engagement
In higher education today, most service is performed
as a cocurricular activity. The result is
a student development model with little attention
either to age-appropriate service or to
building a campus-wide culture of service and
an infrastructure to maintain it. By contrast,
the Bonner program developed "Service as
Transformation," a student development
model based on rising levels of expectation.
This model for cocurricular activity has enabled
us to send the clear message to students,
administrators, and community leaders that
service is not about the individual student,
the campus service program, or the community
alone; instead, service is about all three,
at the same time and in equal measure.
There are challenges to implementing this
student development model. There has not
been much momentum to embrace the rising
levels of expectation, which require students
to undertake serious engagement both on the
campus and in the community. Higher education
leaders still tout the number of hours
served or the percentage of students who participate
without regard to the quality of service
or the level of discovery and learning.
The other challenge we have faced concerns
the great divide between the academic work
of higher education and the cocurricular
activities of student life. As students become
more deeply involved, the administrators of
our programs find it necessary to reflect upon,
discuss, and educate students about the issues
they encounter and the problems they face.
Campus administrators often feel compelled
to engage students deeply through reading
and writing. Yet, given the nature of higher
education and the academic demands placed
on many of these students, there is a reaction
against including more academic rigor in a
cocurricular setting.
Students are participating in courses that
include service learning and communitybased
research as part of the course work. The
impact of these academic experiences is often
transformative for all involved: students discover
a way to connect their intellect with
the world outside the school; faculty encounter
students who are passionate and engaged
in the discipline; and community
agencies receive expertise and products that
they might not be able to afford and that strengthen the capacity of their infrastructures.
Yet, too often, these courses come and go
with the academic calendar, and the level of
engagement waxes and wanes significantly.
The civic engagement academic certificate
Having already gone quite far with a community
service-based cocurricular model that offered
students the chance to engage in service
for their entire time in school, we wanted next
to create an integrated path on the academic
side of things. That is, we sought to create
an academic parallel to the predominantly
cocurricular service activity.
We recognized that many students are already
overstressed because of academic, work, and
social demands. They find it difficult to take additional
courses because of the time, costs, and
existing requirements for majors and graduation.
Moreover, curriculum change takes time and
energy and occurs slowly. And it is expensive to
create even a small number of new courses.
In response to these challenges, our design
incorporated financial and other forms of
student support--service-based scholarships,
community-based federal work-study funds,
and AmeriCorps Education Awards. And instead
of requiring students to take additional
courses, the certificate program allows them
to take courses within the curriculum, and
even within the majors, that touch on issues
that connect to their service work. Indeed,
throughout the curriculum at all of our schools,
we found academic inquiry that connected to
the civic engagement ideal.
While the language we have come to use is
not universally accepted, and the construct is
not followed by all participants, both are meant
to suggest a pattern--or what we call an "academic
journey"--that parallels the cocurricular
student development model, which has a beginning,
middle, and end. The academic journey
connects service and learning without relying
on a forced service-learning pedagogy, and it draws upon faculty commitment to teaching
and research. We began with the idea of a certificate
to suggest something less focused and
stringent than a minor. Yet the culture and
practice of individual institutions led some to
use the construct of the minor to frame the work
we were doing. Regardless of the designation,
the academic journey begins with a lead-in
course and ends with a capstone designed to
bring closure to the experience as well as to
point the students in a particular direction
after they graduate.
A design for civic engagement
The academic journey is both focused and
flexible. Participating institutions studied
their own curricula, made adjustments, and
moved forward by establishing a formal academic
path. The certificate program includes
the following elements:
- A lead-in course: Many schools have a
lead-in or gateway course as part of the
first-year experience. This can take the
form of freshmen seminars, learning communities,
or first-year orientation courses.
Within the broad parameters of such
courses, there is an opportunity to include
readings, writings, and discussions about
service and justice.
- Exposure to domestic poverty: Most
schools, if not all, have within their existing
curriculum courses that expose students
to issues of domestic poverty. These courses
are found in any number of disciplines,
but most frequently in U.S. history, sociology,
political science, public policy, and
literature.
- International exposure: Many different academic
disciplines and multidisciplinary
courses introduce students to and require
thoughtful analysis of international affairs.
In these courses, students are required to
integrate the service experiences with
international issues.
- A service-learning course: Over the last
fifteen years, there has been an explosion of
service-learning courses across the curriculum.
Students pursuing a certificate
are required to take a service-learning
course in their academic major field of
study, where such courses are offered.
Where no such courses are offered, students
are required to take a service-learning
course from a different discipline.
When possible, students are encouraged
to take a minimum of two courses with
significant service-learning components--
one course in the academic major, and
one outside it.
- A full-time service internship: A full-time
service activity is required to complete the
civic engagement certificate. This service
may be completed for credit through an
internship program; if the service is not
credit-bearing it may still require a certain
level of preparation, reflection, and writing.
Students can serve at either domestic or
international service sites. Placements
should expose students to poverty, cultural
diversity, and public policy.
- A senior capstone: A cornerstone of the
civic engagement certificate and the service-
based scholarship is a final presentation
of service and learning that comes
near the end of the student's college or university
experience. Students engage in an
intense and demanding service placement
that integrates academic work. This senior
service capstone may take place as part of a
senior seminar, an independent study, or
community-based research.
Participants in the Bonner program have
identified several elements that are vital to
civic engagement work. We call these "pillars"
to indicate their prominence, and we divide
them into two distinct categories. The "pillars
of content" are essential areas of focus for any
community-service or civic engagement initiative.
The "pillars of design" are elements
of program design that are required in order
to move standard for accomplishment to a
higher level.
Pillars of content
For too long, we have congratulated
ourselves simply for sending students out into the community
or for taking them on a weeklong trip that requires
a passport. But students must know the world they are
to enter, and they certainly must know the communities
they are to serve. We cannot do service well if we do
not understand the reality of poverty and explore its
causes (and potential solutions). Therefore, we have
established it as a new standard that students encounter
issues of poverty in the classroom before and during
their outreach to the community. This focus on poverty is the first pillar of content, and there are many ways
to address it within an academic setting--whether it
is through literature, history, political science, or
chemistry.
When I was a college student, there were
two ways to get involved in the world: community service
and political action. In the service world, students
were told to do service but to keep out of politics;
politics was not volunteering. Not anymore. We believe
that good community service makes good politics, and
that good politics affect the service we need to do.
We embrace a comprehensive approach to civic engagement
informed by the key indicators identified by the University
of Maryland Center for Information and Research about
Civic Learning and Engagement (see www.civicyouth.org).
The bottom line is that if you care about the people
you serve, you will study, engage, and participate in
the political process. If you don't make the connection
to politics in your service, you are not serving well.
This connection to politics is the second pillar of
content.
Recently, I was asked to travel to France and
speak at the Council of Europe. Understanding that I
would face educators and leaders from around the world,
many of whom were hostile to America, I wondered how
to talk about the service work that we do. If I merely
talked about the hours of service we did, or the percentage
of students who said they did service--indictors we
use regularly in the States--I would not be able to
tell a story of value. We may be mentoring a child,
but do students know what is happening in the Sudan,
Cambodia, Venezuela, and North Korea? We know that most
do not. We often use the slogan "think globally,
act locally," but today we are compelled to think
globally and act globally as well. Accordingly, engagement
in the world is the third pillar of content. We are
compelled to understand the impact of our service and
to consider how it might improve the lives of people
halfway around the world--not just in the neighborhood
that borders campus.
There are many ways to learn about
and engage in the world. The most common is to participate
in a semester abroad program or short-term service trips.
The Bonner program encourages more of the same. However,
we also encourage students to participate in study abroad
programs that are oriented toward issues of poverty
and politics and that connect the service and learning
that goes on "over there" with the civic
engagement students begin and return to "over
here." We recommend that short-term service trips
be extended from seven or ten days to twenty or thirty
days, because the opportunities to learn, build relationships,
perform service work, and deepen understanding increase
with longer stays. Furthermore, we look to engage and
develop long-term partnerships with agencies and individuals
who work with immigrant and other cultural organizations
in this country. In America, you don't need to get on
a plane to have an international experience.
Pillars
of design
From the first gathering of participants in
the Bonner program, we have shared stories about ourselves
and our life's work. Everyone has been fully engaged
in extensive programs through which students make meaningful
commitments. The one word that describes our activities
is "intense." There is nothing random or
light or simple about the work we do. This intensity
of experience is the first pillar of design. In the
Bonner program, students are expected, at a minimum,
to serve in the community ten hours per week for the
entire time they are in college. This may seem like
a lot--and it is. Some even consider it excessive, until
they realize that students make similar commitments
all the time--whether to sports, the student newspaper,
the performing arts, or student life. This commitment
of hours contrasts with the dabbling that often goes
on in the many programs that create a setting of volunteer
tourism, where participants see without understanding
and act without feeling.
The service performed outside
of the classroom must line up with the education received
in the classroom. This integration of the two curricula--the
second pillar of design--may sound simple, but it is
perhaps the single most difficult part of this work.
The idea for the Bonner program grew out of the failure
and fatigue of good people who led service initiatives
and who understood the need for quality education, reflection,
and discussion. Ask even the most committed student
to read and write more in a cocurricular setting and
you will have mutiny or fallout. Yet every school has
courses already in the curriculum that engage students
with poverty, politics, and global issues. What we have
done, and what we are encouraging schools to do, is
to be intentional in identifying, lifting up, and connecting
the things we learn in the classroom with the actions
we take in the world. We recognize that, to achieve
integration, it is not necessary to build a service
component into every academic course. For example, in
order to participate in a summer service internship,
students at Washington and Lee University take a course
in poverty during the spring semester; they are then
encouraged to take a follow-up course during the fall
semester. Neither course has a service requirement,
but both inform students' service by providing grounding
in the theoretical, philosophical, and political dimensions
of poverty.
The design of our service work is based
on the academic calendar. Every semester, students'
lives begin anew and their schedules change. As a result,
much of the service activity conforms to the quarter
or semester system. When the course schedule changes,
the service changes or, in many cases, ceases because
of conflicts and new demands. Directly addressing this
reality is one of the major challenges we face. Our
strategies for engagement have to transcend the academic
calendar to include a multiyear engagement. When we
start and stop our service engagement according to the
academic calendar, we revert to dabbling and volunteer
tourism. What we need is a multiyear approach that acknowledges
the school calendar but is not limited by it. Such a
multiyear approach would focus the academic journey
on forms of civic engagement that parallel and intersect
with the service and the study that students do on a
daily basis. This multiyear, sequential, developmental
approach is the third pillar of design.
Conclusion
I
constantly reflect on the difference between my work
in the mid-1980s as a young advocate for more volunteering
and the work I do as a foundation director building
a program to expand and sustain civic engagement. The
motivations and the actions don't feel all that different.
But what is different is where the windows of opportunity
are and how hard we can push. What gives me a sense
of accomplishment and hope is that, unlike twenty years
ago, we can claim a genuine relationship between service
and social justice. We have transformed the divide between
service and academic inquiry that informs our citizenship;
we are able not just to think globally but also to act
globally; and we are now required to connect the service
we do with the political structures that shape and govern
our society.
Wayne Meisel is president of the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation.
To respond to this article, e-mail liberaled@aacu.org, with the author's name on the subject line.
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