Institutionalizing Civic Engagement on College Campuses: A Case Study of the USFSP Center for Civic Engagement

The USFSP Center for Civic Engagement was founded in 2006 with a mission to make USFSP distinctive in its commitment to civic and community engagement through the development of the “Citizen Scholar” program. The objective of the “citizen scholar” model is to combine academic instruction with implementation of concepts learned in the classroom into the local community. In this poster, we will describe the various programs and activities developed by the CCE as a means of increasing civic engagement across the curriculum, and we will share assessment data related to the impact of those programs. For example, the CCE 1) crafted a faculty development program (a faculty development workshop series, a Faculty Learning Community, a course development grant program, and a library of resources), 2) Developed a student outreach program (the creation of a Student Advisory Board as well as awards and scholarships to recognize student civic leadership), 3) Cultivated community partnerships (host a “Civic Engagement Fair” that brings community partners to campus, developed and maintain a Community Partner and Service Learning Placement Directory), 4) Sponsored events and programs (such as Constitution Day, a campus-wide voter registration drive, and community service events (such as the Spring Break Beach Clean Up and clothing drives), 5) Initiated a data collection effort (our civic engagement inventory) to identify the number of faculty teaching, the number of courses offered, the number of students enrolled in those courses, and the number of hours of service contributed under the direction of our faculty in their citizen scholar courses. Using this information, we created our Citizen Scholar Course Catalog. More recently we developed the USFSP YMCA Civic Fellows Program. (Selected YMCA Youth In Government students from around the state of Florida earn 6 credits at USFSP.) The CCE also oversaw the successful 2010 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Community Engagement Classification application process and prepared the 2020 re-classification applicatio