Lang, Project Pericles works directly with its member institutions that, as Pericleans, individually and collaboratively foster the civic engagement and related learning experiences of s
Executive Summary
Project Pericles is a national consortium of colleges and universities that promotes civic engagement and social responsibility in the classroom, on campus, and in the community Since its founding in 2001, it has seen the transformative impact of Civic and Community Engagement initiatives across member institutions, benefitting students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, and community members.
Reflecting the development of the national field of civic engagement, three major initiatives highlight Project Pericles’ growing influence:
• The Civic Engagement Course (CEC) Program™, 2004-2009, encouraged the development of more than 100 courses incorporating civic engagement across a wide range of disciplines on Periclean campuses
Initiated in 2010, the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program selects faculty members to model civic engagement pedagogy and promote civic engagement on their campuses and in the surrounding local communities It also encourages participants to engage in public scholarship, extending their impact beyond the classroom and into broader civic conversations.
• Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement, 2013-2016, has spurred member institutions to inventory, map, and strengthen civic engagement across the curriculum
Creating Cohesive Paths represents Project Pericles’ most comprehensive initiative to date
Project Pericles advanced civic engagement at the level of individual courses and faculty leaders, aiming to understand and promote intentional, coherent curricular organization to institutionalize civic engagement All three Periclean initiatives share the same goal: to advance civic engagement education through innovations that are accessible, dynamic, economical, and replicable.
Creating Cohesive Paths employed a three-step process in which participating campuses first mapped their curricular and co-curricular civic and community engagement and then shared insights at a national gathering Next, after receiving input from Project Pericles staff—who proposed five models for organizing civic engagement—campus leaders discussed initiatives from other Periclean campuses and developed action plans for their own institutions Finally, guided by the mapping results and the action plans, campuses strengthened existing programs and devised new approaches, drawing on experiences from their campuses as well as the lessons learned from fellow Pericleans.
To advance civic engagement, they submitted mini-grant proposals to fund initiatives aimed at strengthening their approaches The work carried out under these action plans and grants broadened and institutionalized civic engagement, turning promising efforts into sustained practices.
This kind of intentional research activity with a goal of improving programs is not unique in the field (note the process involved with Carnegie Community Engagement Classification) 1
Nevertheless, it consistently yields numerous insights into emerging innovations, none more
1 New England Resource Center for Higher Education “Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.”
Nerche.org http://nerche.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id41&Itemid See page 27 for a discussion of survey design
The experience was more exciting than the practice of curricular mapping, thanks to Project Pericles’ emphasis on relationships and learning from others, which supported the process throughout and significantly enriched the experience The collegial and supportive relationships among participating campuses facilitated information sharing and collaboration, helping to develop improved programming.
Mapping civic and community engagement starts with reflection to identify essential elements and proceeds to a thorough inventory across the curriculum and co-curriculum Each participating Periclean institution, guided by a Project Pericles Program Director and a regularly convened team, maps the current state of civic engagement to identify all courses and co-curricular activities that include a civic component By collecting information such as syllabi from relevant courses and descriptions of meaningful co-curricular programs, campus leaders can assess offerings, identify gaps, and re-envision or fill those gaps to align with student interests and needs This work also equips campuses to advise students on curricular pathways that integrate civic engagement and social responsibility while meeting diverse curricular needs across the fine arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
Mapping civic and community engagement yields rich data on where engagement resides on campus and how its components are grouped, related, and managed Analyzing this mapping data, Project Pericles identified five common models that participating institutions use to organize their campus activities.
● Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility (CESR) Requirement
This white paper analyzes diverse approaches to civic engagement in higher education, comparing centralized stewardship with decentralized efforts It describes and assesses these models, identifies best practices, and distills actionable lessons drawn from a broad spectrum of colleges and universities to help institutions enhance community impact and civic outcomes.
Within higher education, there is a growing call for the institutionalization of civic engagement, moving from episodic efforts to coordinated, sustainable strategies across campuses Although the dedication of individual professors and community partners is commendable, this work cannot be sustained in isolation The white paper outlines five models to guide the organization and integration of civic engagement across the institution, helping campuses design systemic approaches that scale impact and embed civic learning into core operations.
“Educating for democracy is difficult and ambitious since it is simultaneously a set of concepts, a series of practices and a pattern of commitment and human agency.” 2
“…We need to move beyond our old assumptions that it is primarily the students’ responsibility to integrate all the disparate parts of an undergraduate education
Meaningful, deep integrative learning won’t take root unless the curriculum itself is designed to cultivate it Designing such a curriculum requires deliberate planning, purposeful strategy, and synchronized execution that crosses departmental and institutional boundaries to embed integration across programs, courses, and support services.
Introduction and National Context
Project Pericles' three-year initiative, Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement, reimagined how civic and community engagement is organized across the undergraduate experience Across 26 participating campuses, teams inventoried, mapped, strengthened, and integrated civic engagement into cohesive curricular and co-curricular programs while supporting faculty leadership and curriculum development The goal was to establish an intentional, coherent approach to civic engagement that diffuses engagement throughout the undergraduate journey, leading campuses to improve academic programs—from creating certificates and transforming advising systems to adopting campus-wide civic-engagement strategies.
This white paper examines the design and structure of undergraduate curricular and co-curricular programs in Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility (CESR), presenting a typology of five distinct approaches to organizing CESR work and discussing design considerations for faculty, administrators, and staff when creating new programs or enhancing existing ones, while offering practical, actionable concepts, ideas, and practices accompanied by clear takeaways to guide implementation and assessment.
Although the field of higher education and community engagement has existed for more than a century in the United States and around the world, recent decades have brought renewed urgency to prioritize and promote these practices Colleges and universities are embracing deliberate strategies to strengthen teaching, research, and service that connect campuses with local communities, fostering meaningful collaboration and tangible social impact Influential gatherings and frameworks, such as Wingspread, have helped articulate a common vision for engaged scholarship and the university’s role in addressing community needs.
This white paper uses the term civic engagement and social responsibility (CESR) to describe a broad, inclusive concept that reflects our diverse membership Each campus defines and implements its own understanding of CESR; for some campuses, the work is synonymous with civic or community engagement, while others adopt a broader definition that includes social responsibility and, in some cases, social justice.
Key sources include the Global University Network for Innovation (2008, 2014), Tapia (2012), and Stanton et al (1999) Sigmon provides a visual historical timeline of the development of community‑engaged learning in the United States While this timeline does not address present‑day issues, the book offers a sense of the many forms these practices have taken from the nineteenth century through the early twentieth century (Sigmon, 1999: 249–257).
Following the 1999 declaration and related developments, what some describe as a social movement within the university emerged to reinvigorate broader public involvement and reaffirm the public purpose of higher education in the United States More recently, these calls have taken on a new urgency In his 2011 Imagining America Conference plenary, David Scobey stated that higher education faces a sea change in its intellectual, institutional, technological, and economic organization.
Scholars such as Scobey observe a surge of initiatives that challenge traditional academic structures by embracing High Impact Practices (HIPs) as defined by the Association of American Colleges and Universities These HIPs include first-year seminars, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, collaborative assignments, undergraduate research, diversity and global learning, community-based learning, internships, and capstone courses and projects Since its inception in 2001, Project Pericles has nurtured community-based learning and civic engagement, frequently integrating multiple HIPs to enhance student learning and civic impact.
Over the last few decades, networks have formed to advance civically engaged learning on campuses National players like Campus Compact and AAC&U’s VALUE initiative operate across a wide spectrum of higher education institutions to promote civic practice, assessment, and student learning, while more discipline- or issue-focused groups such as Imagining America, SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), and Community Campus Partnerships for Health concentrate on specific fields Although many networks include a broad mix of colleges and universities, Project Pericles stands out for its liberal arts college focus and its deliberately small membership, which allows members to build deep relationships This combination of size and shared mission creates an intellectual space for campuses to exchange successes and challenges through dialogue and annual meetings and to collaborate on major initiatives such as Creating.
As civic and community engagement has grown, its emphasis has shifted from merely starting programs, courses, and projects to understanding, through research, what is happening in the field and what it means for student, faculty, and community partner learning Early authors of comprehensive texts described how best to initiate these initiatives, and while some of these efforts continue, more scholars are using research to analyze trends in civic and community engagement and their implications for learning across campuses and communities In short, what began as a movement by individual practitioners or early pioneers has evolved into a broader, evidence‑informed field that connects students, faculty, and community partners in collaborative learning.
9 Jacoby (1996); Jacoby (2014); Cress et al (2013)
10 The findings of this research can be found in new journals that have emerged in recent decades, such as the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning (http://compact.org/resource-posts/4998/4998/) and the
International Journal of Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement
(http://journals.sfu.ca/iarslce/index.php/journal)
5 leaders on particular campuses has swelled over the past few decades to create an entirely new field of study and practice with potential for transforming higher education in the United States With significant growth in the field, many leaders have raised questions about how best to support and sustain these efforts Many have called for the institutionalization of these practices 11 By institutionalization, they mean that these efforts move from being at the periphery to the core of what the institution sees as its purpose, as evidenced by “mission, promotion, tenure, hiring; organization structure; student involvement; faculty involvement; community involvement; and campus publications.” 12
Over time, various tools have been designed and developed to support colleges and universities seeking to institutionalize this work A short list of these would include the Holland Matrix
(1997), the Furco Rubric (2002), and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching’s Curricular Engagement and Outreach and Partnerships Classification (2006) 13
AAC&U has developed a series of rubrics to examine and evaluate civic engagement and social responsibility projects, providing clear criteria to assess impact and outcomes More recently, Carnegie’s revised Community Engagement Classification has introduced a tool to gauge the institutionalization of these efforts, helping campuses measure how engagement initiatives are embedded in governance, policy, and everyday practice.
Project Pericles' efforts mirror national advances in civic engagement within higher education, and its Creating Cohesive Paths initiative expands the focus from individual courses or faculty leaders to how civic engagement is integrated across the curriculum and in the community The first two white papers from Project Pericles trace the field's evolution—from promoting work in single courses to identifying key faculty leaders, to urging colleges to embed civic engagement in courses and programs campus-wide.
Project Pericles urged campuses to map civic engagement across their curricula while also foregrounding relationship-building as a core thread of Creating Cohesive Paths, a stance that Barbara Jacoby highlighted in 2003.
“service learning is all about partnerships.” 17 In her 2014 book, Service-Learning Essentials:
13 Holland (1997); Furco (2002); for Carnegie Classification see New England Resource Center for Higher
Education researchers discuss the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification as a recognition framework for institutions that embed civic engagement into their mission and practice For a more comprehensive analysis of the efforts to document, evaluate, and measure the impacts of an institution’s civic agenda, refer to Holland (2014: 19–20) Additional information about the classification is available on Nerche.org’s overview of the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
14 AAC&U “Civic Engagement VALUE Rubric.” AACU.org https://www.aacu.org/civic-engagement-value- rubric
Brief History of Project Pericles
Founded in 2001 by Eugene M Lang, Project Pericles is a national consortium of liberal arts colleges and universities created to help higher education rediscover its public purpose and prepare students for engaged participation in broader communities and the world The initiative supports member institutions in embedding social responsibility and participatory citizenship as essential elements of their educational programs across the classroom, the campus, and the surrounding community.
To advance its mission, Project Pericles has launched a suite of interconnected programs and projects Some initiatives, like Debating for Democracy (D4D), target direct student participation, while others are designed to foster deeper institutional commitments by embedding civic engagement into the curriculum Collectively, these efforts create a continuum of opportunities that empower students and integrate civic learning into campus life.
Aligned with national trends seen over the past 15 years, Project Pericles launched the Civic Engagement Course (CEC) Program™ to advance civic learning on campuses From 2004 to 2009, the program supported the development of more than 100 individual courses that brought faculty and students together to integrate civic engagement into the curriculum, expanding opportunities for experiential learning and community impact.
As with all materials produced from meetings at The Pocantico Center, the views expressed in this report may not reflect the positions of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, its trustees, or its staff.
Academic engagement that combines applied knowledge with social responsibility anchors this work Through program assessment, Project Pericles identified five overarching teaching strategies designed to deepen academic and civic engagement across higher education nationwide These strategies reflect national trends that prize courses with community-based learning, one of the five promising practices identified by the AAC&U.
Project Pericles, with support from the Eugene M Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation, broadened its focus from individual courses to cultivating faculty leadership as a catalyst for deeper institutional change In 2010, it launched the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program, inviting campuses to identify and nominate key faculty to apply External evaluators helped select one Periclean Faculty Leader on each campus to receive the award, and these leaders were tasked with creating a new model of civic leadership within their institutions.
The Engagement Course (CEC) empowers students to organize campus-wide civic engagement activities and to serve as civic education advocates and leaders on campus and beyond Acknowledging the learning and support that can arise from partnerships and dialogue, PFLs from each campus were paired with a PFL from another campus to foster cross-campus collaboration.
Project Pericles expanded its civic-engagement model on campus by moving from classroom-focused work to greater faculty involvement and by extending outreach from the campus to the broader network of professional scholars As described in the white paper The Periclean Diamond: Linking College, this shift links students, faculty, and external scholars in a wider civic ecosystem.
Project Pericles expanded the Periclean Triangle into the Periclean Diamond, broadening its scope from Lang’s three Cs—classroom, campus, and community—to include a fourth C: the community of scholarship This expansion aims to strengthen individual campuses through faculty leadership and to build relationships across and between campuses.
Participating Campuses
At the start of this current initiative, Project Pericles’ membership consisted of 29 colleges and universities 24 From the member institutions, 26 colleges and universities elected to participate
Allegheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania); Bates College (Lewiston, Maine); Berea College
(Berea, Kentucky); Bethune-Cookman University (Daytona Beach, Florida); Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota); Chatham University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); Dillard University (New Orleans, Louisiana); Drew University (Madison, New Jersey); Elon University (Elon,
20 Berger and Liss (2012: 3); Liazos and Liss (2009)
21 Liazos and Liss (2009: 9) See pages 28-29 for the learning outcomes and teaching strategies
24 At the end of 2016, Project Pericles membership stood at 32 campuses
North Carolina); Goucher College (Baltimore, Maryland); Hampshire College (Amherst,
Massachusetts); Hendrix College (Conway, Arkansas); Macalester College (St Paul,
Notable colleges listed across the United States include New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire; The New School in New York, New York; Occidental College in Los Angeles, California; Pace University in New York, New York; Pitzer College in Claremont, California; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York; Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee; St Mary’s College of Maryland in St Mary’s City, Maryland; Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; and Ursinus College.
(Collegeville, Pennsylvania); Wagner College (Staten Island, New York); Widener University (Chester, Pennsylvania); The College of Wooster (Wooster, Ohio)
This diverse group of higher-education institutions is dominated by liberal arts colleges and also includes research universities Some member institutions are highly selective, while many enroll a high percentage of Pell-eligible and first-generation college students The group includes two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Endowment sizes vary widely, from under $20 million to more than $1.7 billion Although most campuses are in the Mid-Atlantic and New England, the network ranges from Maine to Southern California, spanning rural, suburban, and urban settings.
These colleges and universities pursue diverse approaches to civic engagement and social responsibility, yet they share a core commitment to embedding civic engagement in the undergraduate experience, especially through the curriculum They have devoted substantial time and resources to integrating civic engagement into the work of the institution These schools are not random selections; they are members of Project Pericles precisely because of their dedication to civic engagement.
Creating Cohesive Paths to Civic Engagement: Project Overview
Survey Results and Mini-Grant Projects
These sections outline the five general approaches for structuring CESR that emerged from the survey, together with the projects and mini-grants that responded to the survey findings Rather than separating the survey results from the mini-grant projects, we weave the descriptions of both together to show how each project relates to one of the identified structuring approaches Across the mini-grants and projects, many initiatives incorporated one of the five approaches revealed during the mapping process.
All campuses in the project share a strong commitment to civic engagement and social responsibility (CESR), but the way this commitment is realized varies widely On some campuses, entrepreneurial professors have created a broad set of stand-alone CESR courses, while others have developed highly structured, multi-year CESR programs A review of all 26 CESR programs reveals five general approaches to integrating CESR into both the curriculum and the co-curriculum.
This paper selects a few institutional cases to illustrate the five general models for organizing CESR courses and activities, noting that many campuses blend one or more of these approaches A common strategy is to establish a CESR requirement within degree programs Another approach creates a specialized, distinct program for a cohort of students as civic scholars The third model, the pathways approach, organizes learning around thematically focused topics such as education and access, food and sustainability, and health.
Various approaches are used to organize civic engagement programming, including a fourth approach that provides civic engagement certificates and a fifth approach based on an entrepreneurial/open-choice model In these situations, classes are developed largely independently of one another and are generally not part of a program or campus-wide CESR strategy.
Approach One: CESR as a Requirement – Achieving Breadth
Embedding a CESR requirement into a college's general education or distribution requirements guarantees broad exposure and active participation, ensuring that all students engage with CESR as part of their college experience By integrating CESR into these foundational frameworks, institutions secure that every student undertakes at least some CESR work during their time on campus When measuring breadth of exposure—the proportion of the student body that encounters CESR—this approach offers clear advantages in widening reach and participation across the student population.
Implementing a CESR requirement hinges on a sustained commitment by faculty to embed CESR goals into coursework and on the institution providing sufficient resources to support those classes It also reshapes the campus supply‑and‑demand dynamics for CESR courses by generating a steady demand, reducing the need to recruit students for CESR courses and activities, and enhancing equity of participation.
Eight campuses—Allegheny College, Hampshire College, Hendrix College, Pace University, Pitzer College, Rhodes College, St Mary’s College of Maryland, and Wagner College—have some form of CESR requirement for graduation The requirement varies from campus to campus: some use a general CESR mandate, others require a specific first-year course, and some mandate a sequence of courses Implementing this system requires tracking and recording student enrollment in CESR courses Most campuses also rely on their civic engagement centers and employ a course designation or review strategy to certify which courses meet the CESR requirement.
Pace requires one Civic Engagement and Public Values (CE) course for graduation It offers over
100 approved CE courses drawn from every school/college at Pace Pace writes, “during the 2012-13 academic year, there were 114 CE sections running across its Manhattan and
On Pace's Pleasantville campuses, CE courses must include a service-learning component and require a minimum of 20 hours of community service, making the CE designation a signature, foundational part of the Pace Core Curriculum To receive the CE designation, each course is vetted by the Dyson School of Arts and Sciences curriculum committee and evaluated by Pace’s Center for Community Action and Research, ensuring alignment with service-learning pedagogy Faculty who create new CE courses or retrofit existing ones to incorporate service-learning strategies are eligible to apply for a Pace Project Pericles Faculty grant.
26 Pace University, personal communication with the authors (December 2016)
Rhodes College and St Mary’s both include a civic engagement requirement within their core curricula At Rhodes, the course is designed to foster engaged citizenship, promote participation in the local community, and translate academic knowledge into real-world application St Mary’s incorporates a civic engagement component described as “Experiencing” into its curriculum, inviting students to engage with community issues firsthand.
Allegheny's Liberal Arts in the World requirement is designed to bridge the gap between the academy and the world beyond It can be satisfied through study abroad, a credit-bearing internship, or a service or experiential learning class Beginning in fall 2016, Allegheny required a Civic Learning course as part of revised general education and distribution requirements.
During the mapping period, Pitzer had a general CESR requirement that could be fulfilled with
At Pitzer College, one full-credit CESR course could involve either community service, community-based field work, or a community-based internship In total, 31 CESR courses were offered across 11 departments, including two that were structured as first-year seminars Pitzer described these courses as social-focused offerings that connect academic learning to community engagement.
At Pitzer College, responsibility courses and their designation were largely left to the discretion of individual faculty members Other academic options included independent study or a study-abroad program featuring a community-based internship or community service Pitzer also offered the option to fulfill its CESR requirement through 45 hours of community service completed in a single semester.
Pitzer College replaced its one-course Social Responsibility graduation requirement with a two-course Social Justice requirement after the mapping process, featuring a Social Justice Theory course and a Social Responsibility Praxis course The change includes revised learning outcomes and criteria and is complemented by a systematic college-wide process for the programmatic assessment of student learning outcomes This reform adds rigor and structure to the college’s commitment to social responsibility, community engagement, and intercultural understanding.
Hampshire, Hendrix, and Wagner have created sequential, multi-year programs that structure learning across successive years In Wagner's Wagner Plan, all students complete three learning communities, including a first-year experience with two courses, a reflective tutorial, and a three-hour-per-week experiential learning component at one or more sites, and a senior-year experience that includes a course, a reflective tutorial, and a senior project involving applied learning with a 100-hour experiential component, with the senior year emphasizing using disciplinary knowledge in real-world practice.
28 St Mary’s College of Maryland (2013).
32 Wagner College “The Wagner Plan.” Wagner.edu http://wagner.edu/academics/undergraduate/
13 not all of the Wagner learning communities involve CESR, the approach does introduce CESR elements during the first year and then builds on this in subsequent years
At Hendrix, the first-year seminar The Engaged Citizen invites students to explore the many ways “engagement as a citizen” can be understood through interdisciplinary team teaching, with courses that feature an engaged or applied component that asks students to apply classroom theory to current social and political issues and active community engagement Some courses include a community-based learning component, while others focus more on in-class work For instance, Images of Politics and Society, co-taught by an art professor and a political science professor, combines photography with political theory readings and analysis of current affairs to probe questions of power, governance, and politics Although it includes several campus and community photography assignments, the bulk of the CESR activities occur within the classroom.
After completing their first year in The Engaged Citizen program, Hendrix students move on to the mandatory Odyssey Program, which is designed to promote active learning Participants must complete at least three Odyssey experiences from six categories: artistic creativity, global awareness, professional and leadership development, service to the world, undergraduate research, and special projects These experiences may include courses, pre-approved activities, or projects designed by students or faculty One of the Odyssey Program’s four learning goals focuses on CESR, emphasizing an increased awareness of one’s responsibility for linking action and understanding in the effort to respond effectively.
‘to the social, spiritual, and ecological needs of our time.’” 34
The Odyssey Program is supported by 12 Odyssey Professorships for faculty, each lasting one to three years and providing up to $25,000 annually to develop projects aligned with the Odyssey categories These faculty-student research efforts expand global awareness and directly support campus learning goals around civic engagement and social responsibility Across 35 projects, initiatives include a partnership with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to examine microbial diversity, research on rural sustainability in the Mekong Delta, an economics project using world-poverty methodologies from the UK Department for International Development, and a multi-year anthropology study of Mexican immigrants in central Arkansas.
Hampshire adopts a Hendrix-like, sequential approach to student engagement: a first-year requirement with an additional requirement fulfilled in the second or third year These requirements build on one another, beginning with the Campus Engaged Learning Requirement (CEL-1) in the first year The CEL-1 must involve collaborative learning, take place on campus or directly enhance campus life, and total at least 40 hours of engagement.
33 Hendrix College.“The Engaged Citizen Program.” Hendrix.edu https://www.hendrix.edu/theengagedcitizen/
14 work, and include systematic documentation and written reflection on the learning.” 36
Community-Engaged Learning (CEL-2) is a comparable requirement that broadens collaboration to include communities both inside and outside the College Born from an early community service requirement, CEL-2 now integrates ongoing, thoughtful reflection on learning objectives, community needs, and the steps involved in designing and carrying out projects that address those objectives and needs.
Approach Two: Intensive Programs – Civic Scholars
Civic Scholars programs provide an intensive program for a select cohort of students The
Bonner Scholars is the most recognized national model, with 61 campuses currently hosting Bonner Scholars programs These programs offer scholarships for service to low-income students selected on the basis of financial need and demonstrated leadership or commitment to community engagement, and scholars participate in a four-year developmental model of civic engagement Forty-five Advocates for the Bonner program strongly believe in this model and actively promote it as a national standard, viewing it as a clear path for civic engagement to move from individual action to broader collective impact As three Bonner leaders write when describing how the movement for civic engagement can grow, "We must move beyond the course-based glass ceiling of community engagement toward deeper, developmental, community engagement, engaging a broader range of students and practices." While their model also incorporates course and policy work, Bonner cohorts focus on the co-curricular, whereas the Periclean model emphasizes coursework as a central component of the cohort experience.
On several Periclean campuses, Bonner programs exist, but the ones described here stand out for their clear link to students’ academic development The Periclean colleges typically deploy a cohort-based design centered on a group project for each incoming class This shared, group-driven approach—where coursework and projects are undertaken collectively—defines the civic scholars model and distinguishes it from other CESR models and approaches Unlike traditional majors that offer flexibility in course selection and enrollment timing, these specialized programs largely prescribe both the courses and their sequencing.
45 For more on the Bonner Scholars programs see http://www.bonner.org/nationalnetwork/
46 Hoy, Johnson, and Hackett (2012: 179, italics in original)
18 timing so that all members of the cohort are simultaneously taking the same courses as well as working on the same projects
Drew University and Elon University each run highly developed Periclean Scholars programs for a selective group of students Elon’s Periclean Scholars program began with its first cohort in 2003 and is distinguished by a cohort-based, multi-year, multi-disciplinary approach to service and engaged learning The program recruits current first-year students who demonstrate a clear interest in and ability to commit long-term, pairing them with a faculty mentor who guides them through three years as Periclean Scholars.
Each cohort of Periclean Scholars is comprised of approximately 30 students The program is selective, accepting between 50% and 75% of applicants depending on the year Starting in their second year, the Periclean Scholars take a credit bearing seminar together each semester As a group, they develop a service project Many of the seminars are focused on the development of their service project Their senior year includes a January term travel course to their region of study Cohorts have undertaken projects in Appalachia, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Mexico, Namibia, and Sri Lanka Projects have included HIV/AIDS awareness, pediatric malnutrition, rural development, environmental education, and the empowerment of adolescent girls
Elon also offers a Civic Engagement Scholars program that includes required courses and local service projects, open to all students, in contrast to the Periclean Scholars program, which has an international focus and a three-year cohort model Civic Engagement Scholars must choose either “Social Issues and Problems in the Local Community (Sociology)” or “The Art and Science of Human Services” and complete a two-semester seminar to develop and implement a community engagement proposal with a community partner, plus co-curricular requirements like a service trip and 40 hours of additional community service.
The Drew Civic Scholars program offers a $5,000-per-year scholarship and is described as the college’s highest-yielding award, with retention rates 10 to 12 percentage points higher than the overall student body Like Elon, it uses a cohort model that combines seminars with service projects and requires a minimum of 100 hours of community service per year In the first year, scholars take a community-service seminar and a year-long workshop to plan and implement a team-based civic project The second year features a 70-hour, two-credit internship and three skills workshops In their junior year, scholars join Leadership Teams responsible for helping to run the program, and in the final year they participate in a senior-year component of the program.
19 civic project class, they undertake a project with a service, research, or advocacy focus Topics have included sexual assault, Syrian refugee crisis, environmental impact of bottled water, and air quality
These specialized CESR programs select a distinguished cohort to experience a focused CESR journey across their college years From a design perspective, the curriculum offers a sequence of courses that build core competencies while engaging students in group, community-based learning and service projects In addition to CESR exposure, participants gain hands-on experience designing, organizing, and managing extensive group projects.
CESR courses equip students with essential career skills—critical thinking, applying academic knowledge to real-world problems, and collaborating with a diverse range of people Civic Scholars programs, with their extended projects, further develop teamwork and leadership by giving students sustained opportunities to work with others on tangible tasks Through these long-term projects, students can showcase their problem-solving abilities to employers This emphasis on practical impact demonstrates how liberal arts education can directly enhance career readiness.
CESR courses and programs build essential career skills, including leadership abilities, effective teamwork, respectful collaboration with a diverse range of partners, and active listening.
• CESR cohort models provide spaces and experiences for students to work collaboratively and over longer periods of time The model utilizes high impact practices identified by AAC&U
• By working on projects over time, cohorts are able to develop skills for reflection and a more nuanced and complex understanding of real world situations.
Approach Three: CESR Pathways – Choice and Visibility
Many colleges and universities are piloting pathway models to organize CESR activities for students These pathways cluster around issue areas or themes such as education and access, food and sustainability, health, and human rights and humanitarianism, and are designed to be interdisciplinary, bridging departmental silos to expose students to diverse perspectives on key challenges Under a single theme, pathways present or organize courses, co-curricular opportunities, internships, student groups, and community partners to create a cohesive CESR experience, though the level of integration can vary across institutions.
Pathways models support campus CESR development in several ways They make a college’s commitment to community engagement visible to students by presenting clear pathways that connect learning with civic impact, and they help faculty see how their courses can be linked with others to create integrated, cross-course experiences Together, these features promote coordinated curriculum design, enhance student outcomes related to CESR, and strengthen partnerships between the campus and the surrounding community.
These initiatives provide a vehicle for campus partnerships to come together across departments, faculty, staff, students, and alumni, while also helping students engage in work with greater meaning and potential for social change They offer opportunities for thoughtful and reflective collaboration among community partners and the broader campus network, enabling meaningful cross-sector engagement and shared impact.
Carleton College and Macalester College are actively developing pathways to civic engagement through their campuses’ centers, even though neither institution imposes a CESR graduation requirement Despite the absence of CESR requirements, both colleges report high CESR participation: by graduation, 90% of Carleton students have taken a CESR course, while at Macalester about 47% of students take a CESR course each year This engagement is supported by Macalester’s annual offering of roughly 100 CESR courses, of which about 70% include a community-based learning component.
Carleton is developing a series of pathways in collaboration with faculty, community partners, and the Career Center to organically connect identified student passions with internship and career exploration opportunities The Carleton Center for Community and Civic Engagement staff describe the work at three levels: an institutional level, where the pathways model serves as a framework for organizing efforts; an issue level, which brings together faculty, community partners, and students around shared concerns; and a student level, where meaningful CESR opportunities are made accessible and visible to all students At the second and third levels, the emphasis is on pathways that cross multiple boundaries—between departments, between campus and community, and in interpersonal connections.
Carleton’s commitment to CESR is evidenced by a focused effort on issue-specific pathways for students, creating opportunities that support collaborative approaches to social justice This momentum is designed to evolve alongside meaningful CESR opportunities that genuinely engage students We aim to provide experiences that cross Carleton’s boundaries in meaningful ways, enabling students to interact with others in ways that change the lives of all involved The ultimate goal is to help students build meaningful lives after they graduate from Carleton.
Macalester describes its approach as academic concentrations that offer coherent pathways for students to fulfill general education and major requirements around a central set of inquiries or interdisciplinary areas of study The concentrations in Urban Studies and in Community and Global Health both include integrative senior capstone experiences, reinforcing the program’s emphasis on integrating theory with practice Given that internationalism informs these programs, they foster global awareness and interdisciplinary collaboration among students.
21 and civic engagement are core values of a Macalester education, it is not surprising that study away/abroad is another element that Macalester builds into its pathways or concentrations
Macalester College records pathways on student transcripts, giving them a formal, organized structure, a move that can be read as a new form of institutionalization of the field as majors, minors, and certificates are increasingly developed at colleges nationwide; Carleton College, meanwhile, is actively enhancing and refining its own pathways model, illustrating that these systems can vary in how they are organized and structured across institutions.
Pathways can be simple collections of courses and co-curricular opportunities on specific topics catalogued by a civic engagement center, or they can be a series of sequential courses with cumulative learning goals and integrated co-curricular offerings.
The pathways approach proved popular among colleges and universities participating in
To advance cohesive pathways across campuses, several institutions adopted CESR pathways as part of their strategy In a mini-grant collaboration, Carleton College and Goucher College teamed up to learn from one another and build on shared strengths Carleton’s Center for Civic and Community Engagement is deploying new technology and developing surveys to enhance student tracking and assess learning outcomes The insights from this data are guiding Carleton to refine its pathway design and strengthen outreach, with the goal of increasing participation and persistence in civic engagement programs, projects, and courses.
Goucher College is transforming student advising through Illuminated Pathways, a multi-layered online system that enables students, faculty, and staff to build individualized pathways by searching for courses, co-curricular, and extra-curricular options using keywords or concepts As the college’s developmental education framework, Illuminated Pathways shows how high-impact practices drive holistic outcomes and performances for all students The platform helps students design more coherent programs of study that align with their passions and supports reflection on creating meaningful courses and experiences.
The Carleton–Goucher collaboration exemplifies the strengths of Project Pericles, with consortium members collaborating, gaining insight, and supporting one another while honoring each institution’s unique characteristics Learning from Carleton, Goucher is developing a pathways model that aligns with its campus culture and, in many ways, strengthens that culture by providing a thoughtful approach to designing individual courses of study This partnership demonstrates how a campus-specific pathways model within Project Pericles can enhance academic design and reinforce institutional values at Goucher.
Like Carleton and Macalester, Swarthmore College has developed several pathways and used its mini-grant to conduct research into what draws students to particular pathways and what courses
54 For more on this see Butin and Seider (2012) that describes the development of these new forms of institutional recognition and practice
This guide outlines 22 courses and the skills students use as they move through civic engagement pathways, highlighting the diverse range of learning experiences involved Its main goal is to showcase how these pathways integrate interdisciplinary coursework and practical competencies, enabling students to draw on a broad spectrum of knowledge when undertaking civic engagement projects By mapping the courses and skills across the pathways, the document demonstrates how students apply research, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving to real-world community initiatives.
Chatham University, like Goucher, adopted a web-based platform to make CESR opportunities more accessible to students Although it started as an isolated advising tool to help students locate CESR opportunities, there is growing interest in expanding its use to broader advising, academic planning, and integration with other campus resources.
“reinvigorated team advising approach where students would work with both academic and career advisors.” 56 Chatham now has a four-year plan for each student with integrated advising and career development
Chatham’s work has been integrated into the university’s strategic plan, signaling a renewed emphasis on Engagement and Responsibility In this update, Chatham revised its three mission initiatives to include Engagement and Responsibility as core pillars The university’s new website offers a clear picture, for students and their advising teams, of how to meet the ambitious academic, personal, and career goals embedded in the Engagement and Responsibility mission.
Approach Four: Certificates
Dan Butin argues that civically engaged higher education institutions need new programmatic forms—academic homes such as certificates, minors, and majors—to sustain safe spaces for critical reflection and action over time In response, Occidental College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) are launching certificate programs for civic engagement designed to spotlight opportunities on campus and beyond, while also recognizing the commitment and work of students pursuing civic-minded study.
RPI has created a certificate in “Civic Responsibility” that is designed to prepare students to
The program centers on applying science to the common purposes of life to address the grand challenges of the 21st century To earn the certificate, students must complete 16 course credits from designated classes, participate in forums, colloquies, and selected readings and reflection activities, and finish a capstone project.
Students and advisors use an online portfolio to document accomplishments and track progress toward completion
Occidental College’s Partnership for Community Engagement—a joint project of the Center for Community Based Learning, the Office of Community Engagement, and the Urban &
The Environmental Policy Institute is developing a Civic and Community Engagement certificate program as part of a two-year initiative In the first year, the Partnership convened advisory groups composed of faculty, community partners, and students to shape the program’s design Early in the second year, certificate models were rolled out, marking a rollout toward broader implementation and impact.
Wagner College launched its initiative with a certificate program, and, as part of its action plan and a mini-grant, moved to establish a minor, aligning with the Wagner Civic initiative to broaden student offerings and strengthen community engagement.
An Engagement Certificate never gained traction with students, mainly due to scheduling conflicts and the perception that it lacked long-term value; by contrast, the Civic Engagement Minor is listed on a student’s transcript, giving it clear value in the job market The program director explains that the minor lets students take classes across disciplines and departments, building a breadth of knowledge from related fields To preserve the certificate’s components, 61 elements were incorporated into the minor, including a leadership course and a lab requirement The redesigned minor consists of six cross-disciplinary courses and two labs, each requiring 100 hours of internship or volunteer work with local organizations, in addition to participation in campus events The faculty approved the minor in April 2016.
Establishing a certificate program is more complex than creating a pathway, placing it between pathways and minors or requirements in terms of scope Before launch, faculty and staff must agree on and codify the criteria for earning the certificate Typically, the proposed certificate program requires approval from the appropriate campus committees, and the courses or activities that will lead to the certificate must be designed and available to students Realizing a certificate successfully involves substantial administrative and programmatic work, and the extra administrative layer makes the process longer and more involved than other options.
• Certificates are common on some campuses and offer a format that is familiar to faculty and students alike
• Certificates are one way to organize CESR offerings to make them more accessible to students
61 Wagner College, personal communication with the authors (December 2016)
When planning a new certificate program, carefully evaluate the time needed to meet the institution's administrative requirements, since this workload can vary significantly from college to college Accurate assessment supports realistic timelines, effective resource planning, and successful program development across different institutions.
Approach Five: Entrepreneurial/Open Choice Model
Survey Design and Goals
Project Pericles launched the Creating Cohesive Paths initiative, aware that other instruments for assessing the institutionalization of civic engagement already existed, and we aimed to support a campus-wide process of building institutional commitment to data gathering by promoting the formation of a dedicated team to lead the effort Working with Project Pericles staff and our consultant Barbara Holland, we developed the questionnaire and survey matrix used for data collection, and, while crafting these materials, we collaborated closely with a group of stakeholders to ensure the tools effectively support data-driven decision making across campuses.
27 program directors from participating campuses The final version of the questionnaire reflected their considerable input, demonstrating the relational emphasis at every stage of the process
The survey aimed to gather as much information as possible about how participating colleges and universities organize civic engagement and social responsibility courses and programs, while the data-collection process was designed to foster reflection and discussion on the state of civic engagement education and to reveal best practices and new opportunities to strengthen the coherence and logic of courses and programs; participation was also meant to help campuses prepare for Carnegie’s Community Engagement Classification, a process many institutions have successfully completed, with Berea College and Elon University noting that the mapping work complemented the Carnegie application and the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
The survey is divided into two parts: Part I comprises 17 questions that assess the scope and organization of CESR activities, aligned with how CESR is conceived by Project Pericles, and Part II offers a campus-by-campus matrix listing all CESR courses and co-curricular activities offered The first section asks a broad range of questions to generate a robust description of the organization and administration of CESR programs, including reflections on evidence of institutional commitment to CESR, the structure of units responsible for managing and tracking CESR programming, and policies regarding tenure and promotion.
In question number two, the survey asks respondents to:
Organizational units such as offices and centers are responsible for the leadership, coordination, support, and management of curricular and co-curricular strategies tied to achieving CESR learning and development outcomes These units provide strategic direction, align program activities with CESR standards, and oversee the integrated design and implementation of learning experiences across academic and student-life domains Through governance structures, resource allocation, and ongoing assessment, they monitor progress toward CESR outcomes, foster collaboration among faculty, staff, and student programs, and ensure coherent, evidence-based approaches to developing learners.
For each unit, provide the number of staff, describe the scope of work as it relates to CESR activities, give the unit leader’s title, identify the organizational role to which the unit reports, and indicate whether the Project Pericles Program Director on your campus has any role in this infrastructure, describing that role if present; also list the various roles the Project Pericles Program Director fulfills on your campus.
Campus responses provided a clear view of how CESR is administered and organized at individual campuses, informing both the campuses and Project Pericles about CESR implementation The survey examined the role of advising, the specific learning outcomes and goals in use, and any organized CESR offerings such as certificates or minors, along with summative indicators of student participation The instrument concluded the first section with open-ended prompts to deepen reflection, including Question 12, which invites institutions to share examples of how professors involve students in research related to CESR and to consider the most promising curricular and co-curricular CESR practices.
The survey matrix asks for information about all regularly offered courses with a CESR component, as well as all CESR co-curricular and extra-curricular activities In addition to the name of the course, respondents were asked to identify if it was required, the instructor, the primary year of enrolled students, the frequency with which the course was offered, and whether or not there was a community-based learning component In addition, they were asked to provide any available information about CESR learning outcomes associated with the course
The survey for Creating Cohesive Paths asked teams on each campus to consider as CESR any courses incorporating a combination of specific learning outcomes and teaching strategies associated with civic engagement (see below) Both the learning outcomes and teaching strategies are detailed in the Project Pericles white paper Civic Engagement in the Classroom:
Strategies for incorporating education for civic and social responsibility (CESR) into the undergraduate curriculum are drawn from an analysis of the Civic Engagement Course (CEC) Program This work adopts an inclusive conceptualization of CESR, showing that courses do not need to include a community-based learning component to be considered CESR courses.
1 “Ability to recognize and view issues of social concern from multiple perspectives and to formulate and express an informed opinion on these issues
2 Ability to relate academic materials to their practical applications regarding issues of social concern
3 Motivation and capacity to utilize these abilities to take action in the community.” 67
Five teaching strategies used to deepen civic engagement learning:
1 “Develop novel approaches to research papers and projects that enable students to relate their coursework to real world problems and increase student accountability
2 Use exercises that enable students to empathize with individuals working for social and political change
3 Provide opportunities for private and public reflection that connect coursework with civic engagement experiences
4 Design collaborative and student-led projects that help students learn to work with diverse individuals and groups
5 Expose students to differing opinions and approaches to help them view issues from multiple perspectives and relate coursework to multiple contexts.” 68
Campuses were encouraged to add their own learning outcomes or goals to the three suggested by Project Pericles, creating a tailored framework for student learning Across campuses, courses varied: some emphasized applied or community-based learning, while others offered a broader range of courses.