Citizen Scholars

Students learn about how academics take up the role of citizen scholars by attending events focused on public humanities outreach and interaction. 

The Civic Engagement workshop aims to provide you with some tools for becoming an active, engaged citizen, and for recognizing how your skills, knowledge, and capabilities can be mobilized to address specific social or political problems and issues. It also offers an opportunity to apply skills, knowledge, and capabilities to a particular problem or issue, and to recognize that you have the capacity to make a difference socially or politically, wherever you are in your academic and personal development.

You should consider carefully how you want to spend your time in the community, choosing a cause and an organization that connects with your own interests, and that supports your development as a student and a citizen. Hours should be logged through the Service Learning Center's 'Givegab' link, and you will need a signed report from the agency you served at the end of each semester of service. This requirement, which involves your ongoing investment of time and energy, is intended to help you to connect your academic and co-curricular work in the program and in your major with experiences and development in the community. After completing approximately 20 hours, and after completing approximately 20 more hours, you should provide a link to a reflection that explains the kinds of service you have done and the ways in which that service has helped you to develop as a student, and as a CS participant. Additionally, you should explain what you have learned about the structure, function, and main projects of the organization(s) you have worked for, and discuss how this community service work has deepened your understanding of how service organizations contribute to our society.

Your attendance at a public forum or discussion about an important social issue, and your reflection on that event, are meant to connect you to the social and political issues pertinent to our local or national context. Such understanding is foundational for recognizing how local and global issues intersect, and for developing your knowledge of civic issues and debates.

Students attend two public presentations about the idea of citizenship and/or the policies, conditions, and experiences shaping the lives of citizens, aspiring citizens, or non-citizens in a particular community or society, or which inspire consideration of the student's own role as a citizen in relation to others.