Citizen Scholars: Social Justice

Throughout their time as undergraduates, students in this program develop and put into practice a set of scaffolded competencies. These competencies are shaped through three phases:

Phase 1 -- Exploration: In this phase, students aim to become more self-aware, more comfortable in contexts of cultural difference, and more mindful of the conditions and challenges faced by others. This  phase of the program offers an opportunity for you to

• push the boundaries of your experience, knowledge, and capabilities
• forge new relationships and expand into new communities
• take up leadership roles, and support the leadership of others
• seek ways to reach out to and foster the growth of others
• define your passions
• find your pathways of transformation 

Phase 2 -- Immersion

Students who complete the Exploration phase by demonstrating their growth and development earn Full Status as Citizen Scholars, They become eligible for funding to support an immersive learning experience, and they engage in experiences that are more challenging, more explicitly directed toward their chosen goals, and more specifically supportive of their development as engaged, active members of society.

In this phase you propose an immersive learning experience that

• fulfills your academic and personal learning objectives

• moves you forward in the development of your CS competencies

• links you to faculty and other students in new ways

• helps you expand your professional and civic engagement networks

You will also develop a discovery project in which you

• define a problem, concern, question, or issue relating to social justice

• consult with program mentors and other faculty and students about the issue

• plan and undertake the discovery (research) needed to address your focus-issue, under the guidance of one or more approved mentors

Phase 3 -- Implementation

In the third phase of the CS Program, you will put your growing competencies and commitment to positive social transformation into action in a deliberate, meaningful, and socially significant way.

You will:

• create a publicly-accessible presentation that makes your Phase 2 discovery project artifact available to others beyond MSU

• plan and collaborate on a community engagement project, in which you work with a team of students, faculty, and community members toward making a tangible difference in the world

These phases cover four major themes:

Global Awareness: appreciation of and respect for cultures, values, and practices different from your own; purposeful, respectful interaction with those from different cultures and backgrounds; basic understanding of connections between local and global conditions; basic understanding of how national policies and practices affect global social, economic, and political dynamics and conditions

Discovery and Interpretation: awareness that different audiences respond differently to ideas, communications, and interactions; ability to use communication strategies and media appropriately to reach different audiences; ability to discover, evaluate, and use evidence to support well-reasoned arguments; ability to identify and explore a significant social or political issue; ability to create a public-oriented presentation of your discoveries

Connecting and Facilitating: ability to recognize your own knowledge, skills, and insights, and to explain how they apply to different contexts and conditions; ability to effectively and thoughtfully put your capabilities into practice in academic and non-academic contexts; ability to recognize the knowledge, skills, and insights of others; ability to collaborate effectively with others, and to facilitate their participation in planning, developing, and carrying out ideas and projects

Civic Engagement: understanding of how people’s participation in civic life is shaped by broader questions of access, opportunity, and equity; understanding of how to engage ethically with community partners; ability to identify and connect with community partners, and communicate effectively across differences to plan and implement a community engagement project

As a Citizen Scholar, you’ll develop your competencies under each theme in many contexts throughout your life as a college student, including

Coursework:

• AL 110, Al 210, and Al 491 are designed to help get you started on understanding and developing those competencies.

• CS Option Courses and approved minors, which include materials, assignments, and teaching strategies that support competency development under CS themes

• other Courses across the curriculum, which help you to learn, understand, and apply growing skills and knowledge in areas related to the CS themes

Beyond Coursework:

• Co-curricular Enrichment Activities, like cross-cultural events, film screening, reading groups, lectures, and other similar activities and interactions

• Extra-curricular activities and interactions, such as community service, club meetings and projects, social activities and interactions, casual conversations, etc.

Major Activities and Projects:

Your development of increasing competency under these four themes leads to three major activities that form the core of the program, typically in years 2, 3, and 4:

• immersion in a high-impact learning experience, like study abroad, study away, or internship

• development of a ‘Discovery’ project, in which you explore a challenging social or political issue, define some meaningful possible actions related to that issue, and communicate your discoveries to a public audience (through a work of art, a website, a video, etc.)

• development of a community engagement project, in which you work with community partners to define and undertake a project aimed at positive social contribution and/or transformation

Competencies: It’s important that you understand the competencies you’re aiming to develop, and that you have them in mind when you’re engaging in various activities and interactions. 

When we say that the competencies are ‘scaffolded’, we mean that they measure the  increasing sophistication of your knowledge and skills, maturity of your attitudes and values, and consistency, thoughtfulness, and self-awareness of your behaviors. The competencies are organized in ‘Phases’, with the more basic achievements coming earlier in the program, and the more advanced achievements coming later in the program. The program itself supports your development of competencies throughout these phases, primarily by encouraging your participation in a wide array of activities, interactions, and experiences, providing mentoring to help you understand how to recognize and communicate your development, and requiring guided reflections that articulate how you have grown, and what has been most important in instigating that growth.

Informal Reflections: It’s also important that you document your experiences with this competency development in mind -- very shortly after the experience, you should complete an informal reflection that records your immediate thoughts, feelings, and responses to the activity. These become the material that you use to describe your growth and development, and how you got there -- the path of micro-artifacts that guides your longer, more formal reflections such as the End of Semester and End of Phase reflections.

Submitting your work:

When you are ready to submit work to the Achievements System, make sure you are doing that within the specific tasks (or achievements) that are relevant. Once you submit something, an icon will appear on your program roadmap (the general screen where you can view your program progress). The green icon with a check mark means you have completed that task and that it has been officially approved. The yellow icon indicates that whatever you submitted is currently under review (meaning that you have done what you need to for the moment and program administrators are reviewing your submission). The blue icon with the pin is used for handful of achievements that require you to submit something multiple times. This might be, for instance, a project plan that requires additional updates. For submissions of this sort, once your plan has been approved, the blue pin icon will appear (indicating that you are "good for now, but will have to submit something else in the future" before the entire achievement has been completed). Finally, the red icon with the explanation mark means that something you have submitted has been reviewed, but not approved and requires revision. 

Phase 1 -- Exploration: This is the time for you to explore broadly, pursuing interactions, activities, practices, and ways of thinking that are new to them. In this phase, your aim is to become more self-aware, more comfortable in contexts of cultural difference, and more mindful of the conditions and challenges faced by others.

• It is a time of growth and self-reflection, in which you expand your range, consider how your experiences have affected you, and express your changing self-understanding, connections to others, and place in the world

• In keeping with the program focus on social justice, we encourage you to increase your recognition of forms of injustice and inequity, and to begin to see yourself as an agent of positive social transformation

• We ask you to complete 40 hours of community service in agencies/contexts of your choice. These are to be tracked in the Center for Service-Learning & Civic Engagement's MSU Civic Life App (download ap at Google Play or App Store)

• This phase of the program offers an opportunity for you to

• Push the boundaries of your experience, knowledge, and capabilities

• Forge new relationships and expand into new communities

• Take up leadership roles, and support the leadership of others

• Seek ways to reach out to and foster the growth of others

• Define your passions

• Find your pathways of transformation

Phase 2 begins when you have met the requirements for Phase 1, including submitting a substantial number of informal reflections and effective End of Semester Reflections during Phase 1 that demonstrate your self-motivated pursuit of growth and development over several semesters. In this phase, building on the competencies you developed in Phase 1, you will undertake the immersive learning experience of your choice, with program approval, and begin work on your 'Discovery' project -- an in-depth research project with a public-facing outcome. Each of these immersion experiences draws upon the competencies you've developed across all four program themes (Global Awareness, Discovery and Interpretation, Connecting and Facilitating, and Civic Engagement). They also support further development in those key areas. You will work under the guidance of mentors in your discovery project, and create some kind of artifact accessible to and informative for a broader public beyond MSU (such as a web page, a work of art, a performance piece with critical statement, a film, etc.). The completion of both the immersive learning experience and the discovery project requires several steps, so be sure to look at each of those and familiarize yourself with the specific milestones within each category, and be sure to account for them in your Phase 2 plan.

Implementation: In the third phase of the CS Program, you will put your growing competencies and commitment to positive social transformation into action in a deliberate, meaningful, and socially significant way. You will:

• create a publicly-accessible presentation that makes your discovery project outcomes available to others beyond MSU

• plan and collaborate on a community engagement project, in which you work with a team of students, faculty, and community members toward making a tangible difference in the world

• create a presentation of your community engagement project for other students, faculty, and alumni. It will include reflection on your own growth through developing the project, as well as communicating the structure, purpose, and outcomes of your project

• create a plan for your own future beyond college

• provide an exit interview reflecting on your experience as a Citizen Scholar