The Center for Civic Leadership – Your partner for this journey

Mission: Rice University’s Center for Civic Leadership fosters civic leadership through integrated curricular and experiential learning opportunities that enable students to understand the complexity of social issues, their roles as active members of society, and the mechanisms for achieving equitable and inclusive communities.

Civic Leadership is collaborative, contextualized processes and practices intended to impact the public good by examining social issues, systems, and community partners; applying learned knowledge and skills to community-based projects; and making positive, sustainable impact in communities

Foundations:

Critical Reflection: Synthesizing experiences, concepts, and contexts to recognize agency, commitment to forward action, and value multiple perspectives
Community Engaged Learning: Working with community partners in the process of connecting academic coursework and research to develop a critical understanding of social issues, which includes preparation, action, and reflection.
Ethical Frameworks: Ensuring an evidence and values-based approach to programing and best practices while acknowledging power, privilege, and status

Civic Professionalism: Incorporating civic-mindedness into professional settings regardless of sector or areas of expertise and understanding the role of civic responsibility in every career.

 Explore foundations further here.

Civic Practices:

Advocacy and activism:  Educating and mobilizing self, peers, and community members to speak out and take intentional action on social issues.
Civic research and design: Participating in inquiry-based processes that incorporate methodology and theory for a rigorous study to understand and influence social issues.

Service: Working with community partners to build capacity and/or address immediate needs within a sustainable framework informed by community assets and perspectives.
Philanthropy: Directing resources, effectively and ethically, to address social issues.
Policy and governance: Exercising institutional processes and practices to leverage opportunities for enhancing public welfare and equity.

  Explore civic practices further here.

Learning Outcomes:

Integrate academic and experiential knowledge in civic contexts
Analyze issues through the framework of democratic values, processes, and policies
Address real world issues through interaction and collaboration with diverse community partners
Communicate with and present their work effectively to a range of audiences both within and beyond the academic community
Employ reflection to express their individual values and goals and be able to act on them
Demonstrate motivation to realizing inclusive and equitable communities