Beyond service-learning: Helping undergraduates define and plan for lives of civic engagement at the University of Michigan

Abstract

In recent years, a number of American colleges and universities have increased their efforts at civic engagement education, implementing courses, minors, majors, or co-curricular programs to prepare students for civic activity. In an effort to broaden undergraduates’ perceptions of civic engagement and provide them with concrete skills necessary for active engagement throughout their lives, the University of Michigan School of Social Work has established a multidisciplinary minor in Community Action and Social Change (CASC). Drawing on focus groups and interviews with CASC students, the authors describe the ways in which CASC’s curricular model helps participants to develop and articulate their own conceptions of civic engagement and to plan for how they will be civically engaged post-graduation.