Bringing Civic Engagement to the Classroom
Definition (UCLA Model) | FIPSE | FIPSE and Bonner | Participating Insitutions
This is a guide to help you understand what the Civic Engagment Minor is, as well as the FIPSE grant, which participating Bonner Schools are using.
Definition (UCLA Model)
a concise definition of what the Civic Engagement minor is and what it is about, as derived from the UCLA model
- The Civic Engagement minor is designed to provide students with a core analytical and theoretical framework for community building, governance, and the use of civic resources. It examines the connections between individual success and societal structures and explore traditions of service and the history of service movements. The minor can be paired with any major as an applied and active way of putting disciplinary tools to use and is intended for highly motivated students of any ideological perspective who are committed to education among a broader community of learners.
FIPSE: Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education
a fund that has provided grants to certain Bonner schools for civic engagment certificates and minors.
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The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) is a unit of the Office of Policy Planning, and Innovation and is contained within the Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education. FIPSE's mandate is to "improve postsecondary educational opportunities" across a broad range of concerns. Although a small program, FIPSE has established a record of promoting meaningful and lasting solutions to various, often newly emerging, problems and of promoting the highest quality education for all learners. Through its primary vehicle, the Comprehensive Program grant competition, FIPSE seeks to support the implementation of innovative educational reform ideas, to evaluate how well they work, and to share the lessons learned with the larger education community.
FIPSE and Bonner
The FIPSE grant has been awarded to certain Bonner schools in order to insititute Civic Engagement Minors and Certificate Programs. The core group of schools first selected for the program were the model in the project for many other schools.
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Through this FIPSE-supported project, participating campuses are developing civic engagement certificate or minors that parallel and connect with the Bonner Program's service-based scholarship programs.
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Here is the link to the Office of Postsecondary Education's website pertaining to FIPSE:
CLICK HERE
Participating Institutions and Their Programs
Here is a list of the schools participating in the FIPSE inititave and their subsequent programs
- Colorado College - Certificate
- Concord University - Minor
- Lynchburg - Minor
- Mars Hill - Cocurricular transcript
- Morehouse College - Minor
- Portland State University - Minor
- Rutgers - Certificate
- Saint Mary's College of California - Minor
- The College of New Jersey - Concentration
- University of California-Los Angeles - Minor
- University of Alaska-Anchorage - Certificate
- Wagner College - Certificate
- Washington and Lee University - Transcript-recognized program
- West Chester University - Honors Program
Here is an example of how Lynchburg College has adapted its Civic Engagement Minor as taken from the book Civic Engagement At The Center:
- Lynchburg's Civic Engagement Minor requires nine courses, drawing from several departments including philosophy, political science, sociology, and general studies. An overlap with the general education requirement makes it easier for students to enroll while another overlapping requirement also supporsts Bonner Leaders to participate. A series of twenty-one credits and nine courses engages students in meeting the needs of community partners through core courses, an internship, a research capstone, and a culminating reflection course. third-year students identify an issue and write a public policy briefing, then follow it up with a senior-level capstone, a community-based research project, and an integrative seminar.
Here is an example from West Chester University's Honors Program as taken from the book Civic Engagemenet At The Center:
- West Chester's The Shepherd Program in the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty offers transcript recognition, engages students from any major in an intensive study of poverty, and requires six courses and a fulltime summer internship. It provides students with an integrated, multidiscilpined course of dtudy that also connects to their majors. Consisting of seven courses, including three core requirements and four electives, the program engages students in completeing a 300-hour internship in an anti-poverty organization and producing a capstone research paper. Graduates of this program becoem knowledgable about how their conduct as professionals and citzens will affet the oppurtunities of disadvantaged persons, and how to connect poverty studies with the broader set of community and domestic issues locally, nationally, and internationally.
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