First-Year Civic Engagement: Sound Foundations for College ...

ConclusionI wish to be very clear that what I am calling for is a dramaticramping up of civic engagement in the first year of college. Thetimes require this. The students need this. Our campuses, communities,and country need this.The first year is the foundation for the college outcomes we wishto derive for our students, our communities, and our democracy.Therefore, the introduction to and integration of civic engagementneeds to be accomplished in the first year of college. Several hundreduniversities in the American Democracy Project (ADP) havediscovered and practice this. Many initiatives, innovations, andbest practices from the past two decades provide us with resourcesfor this work: Campus Compact, ADP, Political EngagementProject (PEP) of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancementof Teaching, programs of the Association of American Collegesand Universities (AAC&U) and the American Association of StateColleges and Universities (AASCU), and models of statewidesystems’ requirements (e.g., California). We have on our campusessites of opportunity and models of best practices: first-year seminars,learning communities, service-learning programs, co-curricularprograms, and the many more listed above. Civic engagement inthe first year is the natural fulcrum for meaningful and transformationaleducation.This monograph, especially in its case studies, makes it clearthat we know how to do this. Now it is just a matter of having thewill to help these initiatives achieve their natural and powerfuleducational potential. We can do better! What are we waiting for?