Project Pericles is delighted to announce its newest initiative, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement, a four-part, three-year project to inventory, map, strengthen, and develop more cohesive civic engagement programs on Periclean campuses. This project enables Pericleans to remain at the forefront of educating for civic engagement and social responsibility as they develop clear pathways for civic engagement across the curriculum with shared learning outcomes and sequential components.
In an AAC&U blog post, "Four Steps to Help Students Understand and Describe the Value of a Liberal Education" Madeleine F. Green, Senior Program Consultant, and Annie W. Bezbatchenko, Program Director, both at The Teagle Foundation, cite Project Pericles's work on mapping as one important way of helping students see the connections and shared learning objectives between their courses. They write,
"By mapping themes across the curriculum that are relevant to students' lives and the issues in our world such as civic engagement, internationalization, and justice, faculty and advisors can help show students the various emphases and pathways they can intentionally pursue as they move through the curriculum."
Following the mapping portion of the project and a convening to discuss findings in the summer of 2014, participating colleges and universities will develop strategic action plans to strengthen existing civic engagement programs on individual campuses and/or to develop new certificates or minors in civic engagement. Project Pericles will also publish a White Paper focused on how to organize and integrate civic engagement programming.
Jan Liss, Project Pericles Executive Director, said,
"We are thrilled to be undertaking this project. It provides us with the opportunity to come together and critically reflect on how our campuses are educating for civic and social responsibility. This project will encourage Pericleans to learn from each other; to collaborate in developing new, innovative approaches to civic engagement and social responsibility; and to advance civic engagement within higher education. By undertaking this work, we can strengthen our own institutions and provide important models for others."
This project is made possible through the generous support of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation.
The Teagle Foundation provides leadership for liberal education, mobilizing the intellectual and financial resources that are necessary if today's students are to have access to a challenging and transformative liberal education. The Foundation's commitment to such education includes its grantmaking to institutions of higher education across the country, its long-established scholarship program for the children of employees of ExxonMobil, and its work helping economically disadvantaged young people in New York City—where the Foundation is based—gain admission to college and succeed once there.
