The report, entitled A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future and authored by the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Task Force , includes a national call to action designed to make civic and democratic learning an expected outcome for every college student, and an integrated part of education from pre-school to professional schools.
To that end, Bard has retooled itself as a private college acting in the public interest – where student’s community engagement reflects institutional commitments we have developed – and we have centered civic engagement as an institutional and individual cornerstone. I joke that CCE is like the football team in which 100’s of students engage and take tremendous pride in.
We’d like to get a sense of where you are in your journey, so if you’re up for playing, we have a couple of questions for you, based on the work we’ve been doing as part of this grant.
What organizations do you work with now? How long have the collaborations been in place?
When we go out and talk to people, we ask questions. We’re going to share those questions with you now. Please take a moment, and jot down your answers.
The opportunities that have come our way have been incredible, enriching our lives, our library and our community.
In the past four years, we’ve worked with Bard College to develop Robotics and Coding workshops, a Volunteer Fair, The Big Read, the Read Local Red Hook, had a host of science-based programs for kids thanks to their Citizen Science program. We’ve learned to dance, Bollywood-style, have a Sister City in the West Bank village of Mas’Ha, provided support for LGBTQ teens and much, much more.