VOL. 21, NO. 2 | SPRING 2018

CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES

A Publication of the Association of American Colleges and Universities

Democracy’s Graduates: Reimagining Alumnihood VOL. 21, NO. 2 | SPRING 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS EMILY SCHUSTER, Editor BEN DEDMAN, Associate Editor 3 | From the Editor ANN KAMMERER, Design MICHELE STINSON, Production Manager Democracy’s Graduates: Reimagining Alumnihood KATHRYN PELTIER CAMPBELL, Executive Editor 4 | New Legacies for Alumnihood DAWN MICHELE WHITEHEAD, Editorial Advisor JULIE ELLISON, University of Michigan and Citizen Alum TIA BROWN McNAIR, Editorial Advisor 7 | Building It Forward at Community Colleges: Staying Connected to Alumni CARYN McTIGHE MUSIL, Senior Editorial through Civic Engagement Advisor JOHN J. THEIS, Lone Star College–Kingwood Advisory Board 8 | Showing Up: Transforming into a Civic Actor HARVEY CHARLES, University at Albany, LINDA S. GOOD, Lone Star College State University of New York 10 | “Fair Hope”: Places, Stories, and Education for Life with Alabama Towns TIMOTHY K. EATMAN, Rutgers University–Newark MARK WILSON and NAN FAIRLEY, Auburn University ARIANE HOY, Bonner Foundation 11 | Coming Full Circle: The Life Cycle of Living Democracy SHANNA SMITH JAGGARS, The Ohio MARIAN ROYSTON, Auburn University State University Perspective HILARY KAHN, Indiana University–Bloomington L. LEE KNEFELKAMP, Teachers 13 | Processing Trauma as an Activist Alumna: A Conversation with Mica Grimm College, Columbia University PETER ERKKILA, Community Organizer KEVIN KRUGER, NASPA–Student Affairs 15 | The View from Alumni Relations: Creating a Culture of Giving and Engagement Administrators in Higher Education NINI POORE, University of Michigan GEORGE MEHAFFY, American Association of State Colleges and Universities / Research and Evaluation American Democracy Project 17 | Civic Identity and Agency after College: Alumni Voices from Three Academic CATHERINE MIDDLECAMP, University Civic Engagement Programs of Wisconsin–Madison RICHARD M. BATTISTONI, Providence College, and TANIA D. MITCHELL, University of TANIA MITCHELL, University of Minnesota Minnesota EBOO PATEL, Interfaith Youth Core 20 | Life Outside the Bubble: Reflections from Wake Forest University Alumni RICHARD PRYSTOWSKY, Marion Technical College (Ohio) JILL J. McMILLAN, KATY J. HARRIGER, CHRISTY M. BUCHANAN, and STEPHANIE K. JOHN SALTMARSH, University GUSLER, Wake Forest University of Massachusetts Boston Campus Practice GEORGE J. SANCHEZ, University 23 | The Legacy of an Anchor Institution: Reclaiming the University of Newark of Southern California QUINTUS R. JETT, Rutgers University–Newark DAVID SCOBEY, Bringing Theory to Practice DARYL SMITH, Claremont Graduate University 25 | Learning to Ask: College Experiences and the Public Work of Arts and 'DIMEJI R. TOGUNDE, Spelman College Humanities Alumni ROWENA TOMANENG, Berkeley City College LEEANN LANDS, KRISTEN WALKER, and CHRISTINE DEBORD, Kennesaw State University KATHLEEN WONG(LAU), San José State 27 | The Ripple Effect: Returning Adult Students Learning with Alumni University DANIELLE HINRICHS, Metropolitan State University 29 | Curating Career Success for First-Generation College Alumni GEORGE J. SANCHEZ, University of Southern California Published by the Association of American Colleges and For More… Universities, 1818 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009; tel 202.387.3760; fax 202.265.9532. Diversity & Democracy 31 | Resources and Opportunities (formerly Diversity Digest) is published quarterly and is available at www.aacu.org. Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. ISSN: 2476-0137 (print); 2476-0145 (online). AAC&U and the Kettering Foundation partnered to produce this issue and shared the The opinions expressed by individual authors in Diversity production costs. The Kettering Foundation, established in 1927 by inventor Charles F. & Democracy are their own and are not necessarily those Kettering, is a nonprofit operating foundation that does not make grants but engages of Diversity & Democracy’s editors or of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. in joint research with others. Kettering’s primary research question is, what does it take to make democracy work as it should? Kettering’s research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively Cover photo: In 2015, Joy Porter, a recent Auburn to address problems affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation. The founda- University graduate, worked closely with Cotina Terry tion seeks to identify and address the challenges to making democracy work as it should (then director of the Randolph County Economic Development Authority) and fellow alumna Marian through interrelated program areas that focus on citizens, communities, and insti­tutions. Royston as a Living Democracy Fellow in Roanoke, The interpretations and conclusions contained in this volume represent the views of the Alabama. (See pages 10–12.) Here, Porter (left) and authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Terry tour Roanoke’s restored Main Street Theatre. (Photo by Nan Fairley) its directors, or its officers.

2 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES

FROM THE EDITOR A New Vision of Alumnihood

I recently returned to my alma mater for to reflect on my journey and wonder Foundation for their partnership on a college reunion. My visit was marked what I might contribute to students just this issue and generosity in sharing by all the typical surges of nostalgia as beginning theirs. its production costs. We are also sin- I traversed the quads, traded memories In 2012, spurred by the publication cerely thankful to Julie Ellison of the with friends, and lamented a nar- of A Crucible Moment: College Learning University of Michigan and of Citizen rowly lost homecoming game. But it and Democracy’s Future, the Association Alum, whose expertise and thoughtful was a chance meeting with a student of American Colleges and Universities guidance was instrumental in planning that would be my most memorable convened twelve other organizations to and producing this issue. experience. form the Civic Learning and Democratic A major part of reimagining alumni- Outside the student newspaper office Engagement (CLDE) Action Network, hood involves listening to diverse groups where I had my first role as an editor, dedicated to making civic inquiry and of alumni. In this issue, we amplify I met a student editor who offered to engagement part of every student’s the voices of alumni and the faculty unlock the door. Inside, he brought out college education. As more students and staff that work with them. Our archived issues and proudly showed me graduate having pursued civic engage- contributors share stories of how alumni are applying their civic learning experi- ences in college to their lives as citizens. They describe how former students are A major part of reimagining alumnihood involves working as mentors and coeducators listening to diverse groups of alumni. In this issue, we to prepare the civically engaged citi- zens of the future. These contributors amplify the voices of alumni and the faculty and staff imagine a powerful, inclusive vision of that work with them. alumnihood—one in which colleges and universities enlist alumni as allies in improving civic education and in advancing the institutions’ public mis- the latest edition. It featured an impres- ment, it makes sense to involve alumni sions in the places where alumni are sive array of articles—stories about in the movement for civic learning and situated as professionals and community survivors of sexual violence on campus, to consider how civic engagement might members. This approach to alumni- an examination of city police reform define one way that colleges and uni- hood forges lasting connections among efforts, and three columns on student versities relate to their former students. alumni, students, faculty, and staff while activism. Many CLDE Action Network members building strong communities and a vital My host coauthored one of those (including the Kettering Foundation, democracy. columns. He wrote that he believes he which partnered to produce this issue of has a responsibility to elevate marginal- Diversity & Democracy) have supported —Emily Schuster ized voices and create a more equitable the work of reimagining alumnihood Editor, Diversity & Democracy world—a conviction I share. His column to engage former students as “doers, is one way he tries to accomplish not (just) donors,” in the words of the this. I thought about how my student Citizen Alum initiative (http://www. newspaper experience marked the citizenalum.org). convergence for me of what Harry Boyte This issue of Diversity & Democracy calls “the three C’s”—college, career, grew out of the work of the Kettering and citizenship—and how that experi- Foundation’s Learning Exchange on ence may be similarly meaningful for Civically Engaged Alumni (2013–15). today’s student editors. As I left, the stu- We are very grateful to Derek Barker dent asked me to keep in touch. I began and his colleagues at the Kettering

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 3 [DEMOCRACY’S GRADUATES: REIMAGINING ALUMNIHOOD] it was manifest in “learning legacies” jointly built by colleges and localities New Legacies for Alumnihood over time and now freshly asserted and valued (Robbins 2017). For example, we  JULIE ELLISON, Professor of American Culture and English at the University of Michigan, Lead can trace the connection at historically Organizer of Citizen Alum black colleges and universities (HBCUs) between civic engagement now and in the past thanks to Marybeth Gasman, Alumnihood has been construed as a per- Act was noted. That event generated Dorsey Spencer, and Cecilia Orphan. sonal bond, a professional boon, an intel- a flurry of civic activity, including They challenge how historically white lectual credential, an economic marker, a Shaping Our Future: How Should Higher institutions have constructed origin sto- social affirmation. But it is also—in ways Education Help Us Create the Society We ries for higher education’s public mission that both align with and disrupt these Want? (the National Issues Forum delib- that erase the robust programmatic ties other meanings—a public good. eration guide) and start-ups like Citizen between HBCUs and neighboring com- This issue of Diversity & Democracy Alum and the Civic Science Initiative. munities. In fact, the documents they examines a growing counterculture of (See https://democracyu.wordpress.com/ examine place HBCUs “at the forefront civic alumnihood animated by recent about.) of the civic engagement movement” and graduates, like the ones whose reflec- The simple act of announcing position their alumni as agents of that tions and personal narratives appear civically engaged alumnihood as a new legacy (Gasman, Spencer, and Orphan in its pages. Citizen Alum launched meme made a palpable difference. For 2015, 356). in 2012, under the auspices of the example, Rutgers University–Newark Second, campuses with a strong American Commonwealth Project, as introduced Citizen Alum Newark in the public mission have effectively imagined a national network of campus teams spring 2017 update to its strategic plan a legacy embodied in the “civic-minded and initiatives to “counter the image as an initiative grounded in “a theory graduate” (Indiana University–Purdue of alumni as primarily ‘donors’ with a of change where alumni are included University Indianapolis) and “the active vision of them as also ‘doers’” (http:// in the transitions and transformations citizen” (Tufts University). Assessment www.citizenalum.org). It was followed in taking place in higher education” (57). efforts looking at alumni characteristics 2013 by the Kettering Foundation’s two- This document speaks to alumni as col- have been one measure of educational year Learning Exchange on Civically laborators in “bringing to life the spirit opportunity, real-world learning, and Engaged Alumni. These developments of citizenship felt among people in this the cocreation of public goods. At made possible the first explicit framing city and this academic institution” (57). the same time, civic-minded former of publicly engaged alumnihood as an Rutgers University–Newark, like other students have pushed back vigorously organized endeavor within the civic campuses that are exploring cooperative against inequities. Peter Erkkila’s piece learning and democratic renewal move- models of alumnihood, seeks to recover here, based on an interview with Mica ment in US higher education. Ours was a legacy of place-based engagement. As Grimm, is a case study on how activist a community-wide effort, nurtured by Quintus R. Jett explains in this issue, alumni—particularly alumni of color— supportive colleagues in the offices of Citizen Alum Newark began its work balance a desire for progress on the one the American Democracy Project, The by reclaiming the history and mission hand and resistance to legacies of mar- Democracy Commitment, Imagining of the University of Newark (1936–46), ginalization and trauma on the other. America, the Bonner Leadership its precursor institution. Efforts to Finally, the challenge to the norms Program, the Association of American include alumni and acknowledge them of alumnihood is being driven by Colleges and Universities, and these as coauthors of history mark a real “marginalized majority” alumni (Scobey organizations’ member campuses. change—and variations on that change 2016). Several articles here foreground These organizations were together form the main storyline of this issue. first-generation, underrepresented, at the 2012 White House meeting and working adult alumni and their “For Democracy’s Future,” where A Full-Participation Alumnihood advocates and teachers. As a useful Crucible Moment: College Learning and These developments did not come out accountability rubric, “full participa- Democracy’s Future, commissioned by of nowhere. Civically engaged alumni- tion” is “a democratic process” that looks the Obama Administration, was released hood as a purpose, practice, and subject at “who joins institutions,” “whether and the sesquicentennial of the Morrill of inquiry was already with us. First, they feel respected and valued,” and

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“what kinds of activities count as papers. Several Citizen Alum campus hoc alumni relations, often allied with important work” (Sturm et al. 2011, 3). teams—like Hinrichs and her colleagues equity and inclusion efforts and inter- Applying this to alumni, we can ask: at Metropolitan State University—focus generational learning programs. What Have these graduates been respected on new pedagogies. Metropolitan State’s are the implications for alumni relations and valued? Do their post-college lives course module rests on a set of ques- professionals? “count” (and do they “have capital”) in tions that students ask as they interview People who work in alumni relations the college’s story (Yosso 2005)? civically engaged alumni, including and advancement offices were not in the Given these past and present develop- “How do you address community issues room when the idea of civically engaged ments, how do we discover how civic through your work?” and “What have alumnihood emerged. They were early learning and democratic engagement you gained from being a civic actor?” adopters as members of college teams, matter to alumni, and how alumni As they report in this issue, LeeAnn however, and in several cases are leading matter to civic learning and democratic Lands and her colleagues at Kennesaw campus efforts. This is not easy. Many engagement? We listen to what alumni State University “sought to learn about Americans question the meaning- have to say about their experiences in how arts and humanities graduates have making and money-making encounters college, the terms on which they engage realized their role as civic agents.” The that typically connect colleges to alumni. with public life, and the kinds of connec- generative public work framework has Educator Harold O. Levy urges tions they want with their alma maters.

Looping Back While Learning Civically engaged alumnihood is opening a new zone of Forward President Richard Guarasci of Wagner demonetized, ad hoc alumni relations, often allied with College has asked, “What structures equity and inclusion efforts and intergenerational learning are in place to support young people as programs. they transition from life as students to professionals and leaders in their com- munities?” (2015). emphasized public goods cocreated by graduates of elite colleges to “please stop An emerging best practice in post- students and civically engaged alumni in giving to your alma mater,” challenging baccalaureate support takes the form settings outside the classroom, as John a system of self-reinforcing privilege of what I call “looping back while J. Theis, Mark Wilson, and Nan Fairley that is “bad for our country” (Levy and learning forward.” This starts with describe in their articles. Tyre 2018). Former students may reject student aspiration, learning forward But alumni experiences and insights the alumni identities on offer—donor, toward anticipated transitions from are not easy to pin down. In this issue, sports fan, networker—along with the one educational and life phase into Jill J. McMillan and her collaborators visions of success conveyed by alumni another, while drawing on experiences look at how students skilled in com- magazines. Understandably, alumni of previous changes. It continues after munity deliberation become alumni often direct their exasperation at alumni students graduate, when they trace who look back on college and see “the relations and advancement offices. feedback loops to cohorts of students in bubble” that separates students from But here we arrive at a funda- their former programs. As the articles the world beyond campus. Richard M. mental proposition of work on civic in this issue by George J. Sanchez and Battistoni and Tania D. Mitchell parse alumnihood: alumni relations and Danielle Hinrichs show, direct contact research findings on highly engaged advancement staff have seats at this with­ fi­rst-generation alumni can help civic learning graduates who grapple table as democratic professionals (Dzur students imagine not just a generic with two themes: the desire for a vital 2010). Nini Poore, creator of the College future but a specific professional connection to place and the desire for Connections program in my own college location. work that pays and matters. Graduates at the University of Michigan, represents Many college programs are con- are sorting out mixed feelings about those professionals in this issue. She structing feedback loops that link what active citizenship looks like. explores the obstacles to profession-wide academic generations through learning change in alumni relations and dem- partnerships that center on alumni The New Alumni Relations onstrates that a focus on how colleges stories, told through video, performance, Civically engaged alumnihood is can learn, rather than earn, from their community journalism, and course opening a new zone of demonetized, ad recent graduates can have significant

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 5 impact. At Rutgers University–Newark, models of civic engagement they learned can both be in the world of work and create Citizen Alum reports to Vice Chancellor in college apply to their lives after a more democratic, transparent, diverse for Development Irene O’Brien. Poore, graduation, what other forms of public society.” Cooper was emeritus professor of O’Brien, and other advancement and engagement are available, and whether Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Missouri alumni relations staff—including at they have partners in this transition. State University at the time of his tragic death Metropolitan State, Kennesaw State, Since 2008, I have taught an in 2016. and Wagner College—have been col- American Studies capstone course, laborators and sharers of knowledge What College Means in America. After REFERENCES in Citizen Alum efforts. Divorcing seven years of work on civically engaged BOYTE, HARRY. 2013. “For Democracy’s Future– College for a Citizen Career.” Huffington Post civically engaged alumnihood from all alumnihood, I now specify only two (blog), updated January 9. https://www. other forms of alumnihood is a no-win learning goals: huffingtonpost.com/harry-boyte/for- proposition. democracys-future_b_2088408.html. DZUR, ALBERT W. 2010. Democratic Professionalism: 1. Become a scholar and author of your Citizen Participation and the Reconstruction of Reimagining with Alumni own education, able to locate, absorb, Professional Ethics, Identity, and Practice. Recent Auburn University graduate and use diverse sources of knowledge University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Marian Royston suggested in a Kettering to illuminate past, present, and future GASMAN, MARYBETH, DORSEY SPENCER, and Learning Exchange that “the definition experiences. CECILIA ORPHAN. 2015. “‘Building Bridges, Not of success will have to be altered” for 2. Develop the skills to become a life- Fences’: A History of Civic Engagement at Private Black Colleges and Universities, 1944– alumni like her. Listening to the stories long civic actor and ally in education, 1965.” History of Education Quarterly 55 (3): of civic-minded graduates, she proposed, bringing a grasp of the relationship 346–79. “might attract [alumni] to the university among the “three C’s” (college, career, GUARASCI, RICHARD. 2015. “A President’s Perspective: From Engaged Students to Citizen who aren’t currently seeing themselves citizenship) to the communities in Alums.” In What Alumni Are Saying About there,” which precisely captures the which you live and work (Boyte 2013). Civic Engagement in and after College, edited by Julie Ellison (unpublished Kettering Foundation process of looping back while learning report). forward. The relationship among work, pur- LEVY, HAROLD O., and PEG TYRE. 2018. “How to Linda S. Good tells a story in this pose, and place points us toward the Level the College Playing Field.” New York Times, April 7. https://www.nytimes. issue about success that was a long time next phase of this work: equitable public com/2018/04/07/opinion/sunday/harold-levy- college.html. ROBBINS, SARAH RUFFING. 2017. Learning Legacies: Archive to Action through Women’s Cross-Cultural Teaching. Ann Arbor: University Going forward, reimagining alumnihood with alumni them- of Michigan Press. RUTGERS UNIVERSITY–NEWARK. 2017. “Deep selves should be a learning goal of democracy education. Dive: Alumni Engagement—Citizen Alum.” In Rutgers University–Newark: Where Opportunity Meets Excellence, Spring 2017 Update, 57. Newark, NJ: Rutgers University–Newark. https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/sites/default/ coming. She weaves together a narra- work partnerships locally and regionally files/ru-n_strategic_plan_update_spring_2017_ tive of self-authorship and a career that that invite into their process working w-appendices.pdf. SCOBEY, DAVID. 2016. “Marginalized Majority: powerfully unfolded its civic dimen- adult students and recent graduates of Nontraditional Students and the Equity sions. There will be more stories like any college—bringing them to the public Imperative.” Diversity & Democracy 19 (1): 15–17, 30. https://www.aacu.org/diversity hers as more colleges ask, “In what ways table, not one by one, but continuously, democracy/2016/winter/scobey. do alumni enact and voice our public as civic actors and allies in education. < STURM, SUSAN, JOHN SALTMARSH, TIM EATMAN, mission?” and ADAM BUSH. 2011. Full Participation: With this article, the author wishes to Building the Architecture for Diversity and Going forward, reimagining alumni- Public Engagement in Higher Education (white hood with alumni themselves should be honor the life of Marc Cooper, an early paper). New York: Columbia University Law a learning goal of democracy education. proponent of Citizen Alum, a participant in School Center for Institutional and Social Change. http://imaginingamerica.org/wp- New majority, first-generation, and the Kettering Learning Exchange on Civically content/uploads/2015/07/fullparticipation.pdf. “traditional” alumni are looking for Engaged Alumni, and a close colleague in YOSSO, TARA J. 2005. “Whose Culture Has work that pays and matters in the places Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth.” Race, Ethnicity, where they live or to which they will Public Life. He believed that recent graduates and Education 8 (1): 69–91. move. They are figuring out how the “can give my students a model of how they

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[DEMOCRACY’S GRADUATES: REIMAGINING ALUMNIHOOD] consider productive ways to address Building It Forward at Community problems. Staying Connected to Alumni through The Public Achievement Program Colleges: Public Achievement is a youth Civic Engagement engagement initiative developed at the Sabo Center for Democracy and  JOHN J. THEIS, Director, Center for Civic Engagement at Lone Star College–Kingwood Citizenship at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to Augsburg University (n.d.), “The Community colleges are the institutions Star College–Kingwood (LSC–K) saw Public Achievement organizing model of higher education most firmly immediate potential and a natural fit, recognizes that people of every age rooted in their communities. We draw as our alumni have such strong ties to have skills, talents, and ideas, and that most of our students from our local our local community north of Houston, by learning to work strategically with communities, and the vast majority of Texas. Yet as we began to think about others, they can solve problems and our graduates stay in the community building an alumni program, we real- build sustainable democratic societies.” to live and work. Yet in community ized that working within the community In the Public Achievement model at colleges across the country, alumni are college context would require us to LSC–K, college students coach teams an underutilized resource. We seldom create a different kind of model. We’ve of K–12 students who research, develop, have alumni associations, alumni rarely found that civic engagement activi- and carry out action plans to address come back to our campuses to mentor ties are the link that can keep alumni issues that they care about in their and advise students, and without connected to LSC–K. Students who communities. The issues range from alumni offices to track and compile participate in civic engagement activities school-focused ones such as improving data, we often do not even know who at LSC–K tend to form close relation- lunches or addressing bullying to our alumni are. ships with faculty and with one another broader issues like building a commu- In addition, we don’t conduct alumni through powerful experiences in the nity teen center, stopping animal abuse, relations as conventionally understood. community, and those relationships can or saving the rainforest. Alumni relations efforts in other types stay strong through continued engage- Regardless of the issues they address, of colleges typically revolve around ment after graduation. college coaches and K–12 students craft sports and capital campaigns—but LSC–K’s Citizen Alum initiative appeals to those in power, modify their community colleges don’t have high- started as a “build it forward” model. proposals based on the feedback and profile sports teams and, because our Because many of our former students interests of decision makers, and develop colleges have grown considerably in the did not think of themselves as alumni, public skills and confidence. In other last few decades, our alumni often have we could not easily motivate them to words, they learn to be political and not yet reached their peak earning years. engage with the college. Instead, we develop a sense of agency. For their part, community college focused on current LSC–K students The Public Achievement program at graduates often do not even think of involved in the public work of Lone Star LSC–K has grown since its inception, themselves as alumni. Many alumni who College’s nonpartisan Center for Civic when eight coaches worked in a single feel close to their campuses attribute Engagement. We saw this as a way to high school with twenty-six students in this connection to cocurricular activities build a future network of alumni dedi- five issue groups. Over the seven years they engaged in and social relationships cated to civic work. As I discuss in this of the program, two hundred college they developed during their educational article, our alumni work has centered students have coached hundreds of K–12 experience. But community colleges around former students who were (1) students working in dozens of issue often do not have dorms, fraternities, or Public Achievement program coaches groups in four schools. sororities, and they offer little in the way who worked with K–12 students to In 2015, coaches from the first year of of cocurricular life, preferring instead to solve community issues or (2) delibera- Public Achievement began graduating spend resources on “job training.” tive dialogue moderators who helped from four-year colleges. LSC–K’s Citizen When Citizen Alum first began in community members with differing Alum program moved in a new direc- 2011 as an initiative to involve alumni viewpoints find common ground and tion as we partnered with these alumni in educating future active citizens, Lone

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 7 to expand Public Achievement in our things happen to people rather than A program like Public Achievement community. people making things happen.” would provide my kids with an As an LSC–K Public Achievement opportunity to meet people other Partnering with an Alumna coach during the program’s inaugural than teachers who have college Cleveland, Texas, is a small town north- year, Thorp worked with students at degrees. Positive interactions with east of Houston that exemplifies the Splendora High School’s Early College adults would build [their] confidence. new reality of disappearing blue-collar Program who, she recalled, “often The problem-solving model in Public jobs in the United States. The median picked big issues to attempt to solve such Achievement would strengthen household income is $35,791—less than as hunger or drop-out rates. Teenagers, [their] critical thinking skills. two-thirds of the median income of often labeled as self-absorbed, wanted the state ($54,727)—and 26.7 percent of to impact change to improve the lives of Thorp’s experience as a Public Cleveland residents live below the pov- others. They saw big problems and they Achievement coach helped shape her erty level, compared with 15.6 percent of wanted to tackle them head-on.” perceptions of education and her bond Texas residents. In addition, Cleveland is The impact on Thorp was profound. with LSC–K. When asked why she a diverse community with a population “As a coach, I was inspired by working wanted to work with current LSC–K that is 46 percent non-Hispanic white, with teens as they turned the impossible students to create a Public Achievement 28.9 percent Hispanic, and 23.5 percent into something that was possible,” she program at Southside Primary, she said, black. Less than 10 percent of Cleveland said. “My group faced many challenges residents over the age of 25 have gradu- but they worked through these Our kids need to feel they are able to ated from college (US Census Bureau challenges.” She reflected, impact their fate. Public Achievement 2016a, 2016b). The district’s schools are provides that type of opportunity. beset with problems and perennially fail I see the need for a civic engagement Intervening early with programs like to meet annual academic progress goals. program in our classrooms. My Public Achievement could help break Danielle Thorp, an LSC–K alumna and students are considered to be highest the cycle of poverty and learned second-grade teacher at Cleveland ISD’s poverty. The vast majority receives helplessness within this community. Southside Primary School, said, “Living free or reduced[-price] school lunch. Fortunately, my exposure to Public in a community with high poverty, Many of my eight-year-olds feel that Achievement in college provided me you are often surrounded by a sense of college is out of the question because with an enormous tool to inspire helplessness. This is a community where they are not smart enough. my students.

transformation into a civic actor. A Security disability claims. For more Showing Up: speech professor, whose class I had than twenty years, I have addressed the Transforming into a hoped to avoid because of my fear of legal needs of the most vulnerable mem- public speaking, inspired me to win bers of our communities. Civic Actor national speaking awards, and a his- While I engaged in public service one tory professor motivated me to major client at a time, my husband pursued  LINDA S. GOOD, Board of Trustees at Lone in history. After earning an associate an academic career at Lone Star College Star College of arts degree, I transferred to Baylor in the Houston metropolitan area. University, where I met a graduate stu- His campus, Lone Star College–North When people ask me why I support dent who wholeheartedly supported my Harris, is the most ethnically diverse community colleges, I answer, “Because goal to become an attorney. That student of Lone Star’s six campuses and serves they are transformative.” Good com- and I married three and a half hours the highest concentration of first- munity colleges change the lives of their after I graduated Phi Beta Kappa. After generation, limited-English-proficiency, students. taking a year off for the birth of our and low-income students. At times, Entering Temple Community College child, I began law school at age thirty-six he referred students to me whose legal in Temple, Texas, at age thirty-two as a and graduated three years later. needs threatened their college success. I divorced mother of two and a survivor I chose to specialize in poverty law, also took every opportunity to direct my of an abusive marriage, I began my centering on family law and Social clients to community college programs

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During the 2015–16 school year, communities after they graduate, we Thorp worked with LSC–K to intro- hope to turn to them to lead discussions duce the Public Achievement program that provide residents with productive to Southside Primary, where she now ways to deal with controversial issues, serves as the program’s site coor- while keeping these alumni engaged dinator. Over the past three school with LSC–K. This approach is already years, 145 first- and second-grade paying dividends, as I recently recruited students have worked with more than an LSC–K graduate as my copresenter sixty college coaches in two teachers’ for a speech I gave about deliberative classrooms. dialogue at Texas State University.

Deliberative Dialogue and Alumni Building Alumni Networks

LSC–K has been working to build a Community colleges will have to Southside Primary School students work on Public robust deliberative dialogue program be creative in building networks of Achievement projects. (Photo by Kimberly Elliott) for five years (Theis and Forhan 2017). civically engaged alumni. LSC–K will The goal of the program is to develop continue to grow its Citizen Alum students’ skills in moderating dif- program by keeping recent graduates REFERENCES ficult conversations on controversial who participated in civic engagement AUGSBURG UNIVERSITY. n.d. “Public Achievement.” http://www.augsburg.edu/sabo/ issues. Deliberative dialogue is a key programs involved and by highlighting what-we-do/publicachievement/. democratic skill and is often used their civic work on our website and in THEIS, JOHN J., and FAGAN FORHAN. 2017. together with public work approaches publications. We will draw on former “Addressing Wicked Problems through Deliberative Dialogue.” Diversity & Democracy to problem solving such as Public Public Achievement coaches and 20 (1): 16–18. https://www.aacu.org/diversity Achievement. deliberative dialogue moderators to democracy/2017/winter/theis. By facilitating regular dialogues on create a civic network of alumni that US CENSUS BUREAU. 2016a. “Quick Facts: Cleveland City, Texas.” https://www.census.gov/ campus and in the community, LSC–K will strengthen democratic practices in quickfacts/fact/table/clevelandcitytexas/ students learn the skills that will carry communities, mentor current LSC–K PST045216. them forward as they engage in their students, and take the skills they US CENSUS BUREAU. 2016b. “Quick Facts: Texas.” communities as alumni. As trained learned at LSC–K with them as they https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/TX. moderators fan out into the local move forward in life. <

where they might achieve their goals. My community college experience with Community colleges are uniquely I became involved in local politics, public speaking, my knowledge of US positioned to serve students who are reviving the Montgomery County history, and my legal training came terrified they cannot succeed while chapter of Texas Democratic Women together as I won 53 percent of the vote also providing honors programs for and serving as delegate to the state in a three-person race on a shoestring high achievers and lifelong learning for Democratic convention, among other budget. Four and a half years later, my mature students. roles. When I began my political work, colleagues elected me chair of the board, Dr. Steve Head, chancellor of Lone the Democratic Party barely existed in a position I held for two years. Star College, has championed a system- Montgomery County, arguably the most On the board, I continue to promote wide Center for Civic Engagement. conservative county in Texas. But the transparency, equity, and due process. As I have learned, going to college is county chair made an offhand comment As a lawyer, I know due process makes about more than getting a good job; that has stuck with me: “Decisions are it harder for the mighty to trample the it is also about transforming into an made by those who show up.” Being civ- rights of the less powerful. The board engaged citizen who can effect change. ically engaged is showing up. I learned of trustees does not “run” the col- Educated citizens can better realize how small, organized groups can effect lege; we govern it, setting its tone and their personal potential, build strong local change. vision, assuring its fiscal health, and communities, and bolster our demo- In 2010, I ran for the position of empowering employees to provide a cratic institutions. < trustee on the Lone Star College Board. transformative learning environment.

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 9 [DEMOCRACY’S GRADUATES: REIMAGINING ALUMNIHOOD] reflect deeply on that experience, are what matter most. “Fair Hope”: Places, Stories, and Education for Our students, who come mainly Life with Alabama Towns but not exclusively from liberal arts disciplines, grow personally and profes-  MARK WILSON, Director, Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities at Auburn sionally from the experience. They University gain self-confidence because they are  NAN FAIRLEY, Associate Professor of Journalism at Auburn University organizing projects—such as art classes for young people or a river cleanup day—that give them the chance to work In November 2010, we met with a small would create new stories related to civic with people and understand the political group of citizens from seven Alabama engagement, community assets, personal implications of community work. communities and our colleagues growth, and adventure. Challenges are unforeseen and many, from Auburn University in Fairhope, We asked our friends what they and they encourage students to cultivate Alabama, to plan a new venture. thought their communities could con- deeper listening skills and an ability to Fairhope, which overlooks the Eastern tribute to an undergraduate’s “education persevere and develop backup plans. Shore of Mobile Bay, was particularly for life.” The common refrain related to Students write an article each week on a inspirational for our purpose. In 1894, working with diverse (and sometimes civic topic, such as a third space (outside another small group of citizens from ornery) people, experimenting with new of the home and workplace); a “wicked Des Moines, Iowa—followers of the eco- ideas, and learning from things that do problem” (Rittel and Webber 1973); a nomic theories of Henry George—began not work out as planned. The project we city council meeting; or individuals a colony based on cooperative individu- were creating together would be the real- and organizations who embody civic alism and a “single tax,” which allowed world experience that students need and engagement. individuals to become shareholders of deserve, an opportunity to experience Students often call the experience the cooperation that owned the land. how citizens come together (or not) for an internship, as that’s the primary They chose the Eastern shore, according the common good. mental model for a practical experience to legend, because they saw a “fair hope in college. We remind them that in of success.” The Living Democracy Experience internships, students usually learn an Our venture would not be quite so Over the last six summers, thirty stu- institutional culture from the bottom bold as that of the original Fairhope dents have helped create many stories. up. Instead, Living Democracy is a residents, but we would launch it in the A few are told here and on the next two living-learning experience that is more same spirit of cooperation and with the pages, and many more are available at horizontal in nature, where students realization that the experiment might http://www.auburn.edu/livingdemocracy. discover the web of relationships that fail. The Auburn University team wanted We never intended to build a large make a community thrive—and they to see if the citizens were interested in program, and the longer we organize identify the relationships that should be collaborating on a new project named the venture, the more we realize that there. As one student stated, “It’s not an Living Democracy, where undergraduate the experience is not one that should be internship where you make coffee; it’s students would embark on living- scaled up. With between three and seven an experience where you have coffee . . . learning experiences in communities students each summer, we believe we are with lots of people.” and develop skills to become committed providing communities in our state with citizens in a democratic society. the best thing a university can offer: a Alumni Perspectives Rather than ask about community curious student who wants to grapple Since Auburn University joined the needs, we asked for community stories, with the opportunities and challenges Citizen Alum network, students in the tales of service that shaped the lives of of active citizenship. Students usually Introduction to Community and Civic those around the table—a schoolteacher/ take the courses Community Journalism Engagement course have interviewed mayor, a director of a health-related and Introduction to Community and recent alumni—including former Living nonprofit organization, a city clerk, Civic Engagement, which give students Democracy Fellows—about their civic a historic site director, a minister, an context and help them develop skills identities and actions. artist, and others. Through Living for the work. But the actual ten-week One of those alumni was Mary Beth Democracy, students and communities summer experience, and the ability to Snow, who graduated in 2014 and who

10 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES described her Living Democracy experi- Elba, Alabama. Named for the 154-mile- ence as “the most important thing I long Pea River that runs through Elba, did in college.” As an undergraduate, the organization ultimately aims to she spent ten weeks in Collinsville, complete 154 projects to improve the Alabama, where the population is more community’s quality of life. Six Living than 40 percent Hispanic. She estab- Democracy Fellows have since worked lished a reading program for immigrant with Restoration 154 on projects children in a trailer park, among other including a community mural and the projects. As she began her career as a Giving Garden, which provides fresh bilingual teacher in a Houston elemen- produce to be distributed through the tary school, Snow said she felt better local food bank. Chapman observed, “I prepared than other recent graduates really like how Living Democracy brings might because “there’s less fear of the in young people with outside opinions grittiness of real life.” She explained, and energy.” “I think we’re often shortchanged Perhaps the intersection of Living Students work with a local economic developer to as undergraduates. We are offered Democracy and Citizen Alum is the map community assets in Marengo County, Alabama. consumer-based, polished study abroad focus on networks. The development of (Photo by Nan Fairley) and types of service experiences [that] networks and collaborative work around are just about what you can get out of it.” issues of democracy will help us answer In contrast, she said, Living Democracy the charge that Marietta Johnson, “was the real world. We were given tools founder of the revolutionary Organic REFERENCES and then told to go out and make some- School of Education in Fairhope, JOHNSON, MARIETTA. 1996. Organic Education: Teaching Without Failure. Fairhope, AL: thing working with local citizens.” Alabama, set forth at the beginning of Marietta Johnson Museum of Organic Our Living Democracy program the twentieth century. “Education must Education. connected us to Laurie Chapman, a 1998 come into its own,” she said. “It must RITTEL, HORST W. J., and MELVIN M. WEBBER. 1973. “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Auburn University graduate who is now become the conscious agent for building Planning.” Policy Sciences 4: 155–69. executive director of Restoration 154, a better world. It must be true to its high a nonprofit in the rural community of mission” (1996, 95). <

Movement, made me to want under- Coming Full Circle: The Life Cycle of Living stand what can happen when citizens Democracy gather around a common cause. Living Democracy was too good an opportu-  MARIAN ROYSTON, 2013 Graduate of Auburn University nity to pass up. Then Dr. Wilson told me about a placement in Hobson City, I entered Auburn University in 2009 authentic experiences that would lead the first municipality in Alabama to be with a surface-level understanding of me to something deeper. founded entirely by African Americans. community service and engagement. At Auburn, I found what I was It married my two loves, of history and Through family example and school and looking for and more as a Community community development. I was in. community expectations, I had become and Civic Engagement (CCE) minor. hardwired to volunteer. I participated Of all the CCE opportunities I par- Hard-Learned Lessons in every organization possible and ticipated in, Living Democracy was by Dr. Wilson and Professor Nan Fairley volunteered in the community because far the most authentic. I first learned assembled an amazing group of Living I could leave those activities feeling of it in an Appalachian Community Democracy Fellows. We all had different “good.” By my freshman year of col- Development class with Dr. Mark reasons for participating, but we shared lege, however, such a feel-good lifestyle Wilson. That class, coupled with a a desire for an authentic experience. felt exhausting and empty. I wanted course I had taken on the Civil Rights Continued on page 12

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 11 Continued from page 11

We threw ourselves into the task of The lessons I learned preparing for our individual summer in Hobson City were hard, 2012 placements. We researched our but they were worth it. I sites by speaking with our community learned that any popula- partners, visiting the towns, and reading tion, no matter how small, everything we could. In addition, we reflects a diversity of read literature on democracy, civic perspectives. Prioritizing engagement, community develop- one group over another is ment, and grassroots organizing. Most risky, no matter how legiti- beneficially, in my opinion, we were mate we feel their concerns required to take a class in community are. Community partner- journalism. Although I told myself ships mean that all present that I was not going to Hobson City should be able to use their to save the world, consuming so much gifts for the benefit of the theoretical knowledge without testing community. By skewing Living Democracy Fellows, including Marian Royston (second from left), it through application gave me a false my role into that of a “com- visit a Buddhist temple in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. (Photo by Nan Fairley) bravado. I was ready to go to Hobson munity servant,” I failed City and interact with the community to take ownership of the the right way. town and its issues as I should have. My the project personal for me. It wasn’t In reality, no amount of theoretical unique perspective on the community about a passing grade; it was about knowledge or prior warning can prepare was almost lost. building a program that would benefit an individual to experience civic life in Through Living Democracy, both rural citizens. It felt like a continuation a new community. I’m thankful for the students and citizens should gain new of my fellowship in a different place. preparation I received, but the beauty of knowledge. But the servant mindset was I realized that no matter how long Living Democracy is that it allows naive, hard to break. Above all, I learned that or short my time is in a community, idealistic students like me to get their in civic life, relationships matter the people will feel the impact of my pres- hands dirty and find out what happens most, and I left Hobson City with many ence—positive or negative—long after when academia hits the streets. rela ­tionships that continue to be mean- my departure. Living Democracy in Hobson City ingful to me. Now I’m back home in Randolph was the most challenging ten weeks of County, Alabama, teaching social my life. My original project—to com- The Living Democracy Mindset studies at Handley Middle School, plete a comprehensive community needs After Living Democracy, I was named a which I attended as a student. Before assessment with a group of youth volun- George J. Mitchell Scholar, and I spent a that, I spent two years as program teers (lofty, I know)—fell flat. I knew the year in Northern Ireland (NI) obtaining director of the Randolph County Youth project was failing long before I would a master’s degree in leadership for sus- Development Initiative, where I worked admit it, but it was what the community tainable rural development from Queen’s closely with another Living Democracy wanted and, steeped in literature about University Belfast. I took the Living Fellow, Joy Porter, in 2015. My home pushy academics foisting their ideas on Democracy mindset with me. Although county will soon have a deficit of leader- community partners, I did not speak I knew my time in NI was finite, I still ship, business development, and workers up. In adopting such a mindset, even dug into the community, built relation- unless we can plug the brain drain that with noble intentions, I undermined the ships, and searched for the heartbeat of we have been experiencing. Through my purpose of the program. Listening to the my temporary home. work with youth, I hope to equip our community is important, but speaking As a degree requirement, I spent next genera­tion of leaders. up is important, too. Eventually, we four months working for the NI Living Democracy left me with a men- landed on a backup plan: collecting oral Department of Agriculture and tality that I will carry with me for the rest histories and creating an exhibition with Rural Development, consulting with of my life. To be engaged in community historic photos. The new project maxi- stakeholders and drafting a funding life, listening and doing are important, mized the town’s historical assets while program for rural social enterprises. but so is speaking. I am no longer afraid developing my talents. The Living Democracy mentality made to do any of those things. <

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[PERSPECTIVE] Grimm: Yes, or like they weren’t ready and I should have known that. Or Processing Trauma as an Activist maybe even that I was wrong. My pro- A Conversation with Mica Grimm fessor told me not to apologize. But she Alumna: also was someone that was in the room  PETER ERKKILA, Community Organizer when it happened. College never felt safe to me after that. After it happened, I had to get off campus for a while. It [took] me a couple days to realize that they When a college or university’s public As a freshman, [my class saw] a were just going to keep bringing black face is marred by scandals or criticism, play where a woman says these racially kids up here into these spaces, and I had former students may find it difficult to charged things—microaggressions—to to do something about it. be enthusiastic “boosters” that fit the this black man. After the play was mold of engaged alumni. This tension over, no one in the class got it. And Erkkila: And that’s when you started to is even more pronounced for alumni no wonder, because they didn’t even organize around some of the issues you who faced negative experiences or even have a basic understanding of what and other students were facing? trauma during their time on campus. racism is. So if you don’t have that basic How do they process the effects of foundation, how are you supposed to Grimm: Some friends and I started a these experiences on themselves and understand the nuances of microaggres- group on campus, and we ended up their work? sions, right? getting a new vice president position As a professional community During the discussion of the play, for institutional diversity—a woman organizer working for social change, most people were making fun of what of color—[and] several staff hired. these issues have weighed on my mind they saw and cracking jokes about Suddenly the school made a recommit- since I left my alma mater. To explore racism. There were probably only seven ment to diversity that became one of these questions, I sat down with Mica kids of color, and we were all sitting their pillars of education. They insti- Grimm, a fellow community organizer together. It was just really hurtful to tuted an anonymous incident reporting I worked with at Minnesota Public be in that space. And someone asked, system. A lot of students hadn’t felt safe Interest Research Group (MPIRG) “Why can black people say ‘the n-word’ reporting a race-related incident in a in Minneapolis. Grimm is one of and white people can’t?” In my mind, majority-white school. But for me, it was the founders of Black Lives Matter this was such an easy answer, so I vol- too little, too late. Minneapolis. In her role at MPIRG, she unteered to respond, and I said, “White I look back and I am really proud of worked with college students across the people can’t say ‘the n-word’ because of the accomplishments and how much state around racial justice issues. slavery.” And then people started to boo the campus shifted while I was there. It me. I was so confused, so baffled. Did did help me realize that any space I was Editor’s note: This interview has been they not understand what I was saying? in, I could shift it and bend it. That was edited for length and clarity. So I tried to talk about the history of the really encouraging. word and I ended up getting booed even Erkkila: What was your entrance into more. And I wondered if any of these Erkkila: You left college without gradu- college like? educators, or my professors, or any of the ating and started working as a commu- people putting this [play] on were going nity organizer. Despite your experience Grimm: I was recruited to [a small to say anything. And they didn’t, so I at college, you kept higher education college in eastern Minnesota]. When thought I had done something wrong. and college students at the center of I got to campus, I would get asked, Afterward, I actually apologized to your work and activism. How do you “How do I talk to black people?” my classmates because I felt that it was understand your transition from school and not know what to say. . . . You’re my fault. That I had tried to put too to your professional life? talking to me now! It was really a chal- much information onto them. And I lenge. I had faced racism [back home] didn’t want to be ostracized. Grimm: Knowing that there were still in Minneapolis but I didn’t realize students going through what I went that people could be so ignorant and Erkkila: You felt like it was your fault through, I felt obligated to take some unknowing to talk to me like that. for not getting the message across? of the weight off their backs. It’s not

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 13 fair what queer students, or trans stu- be themselves. Students can affect how that action, which made national news, dents, or students of color have to go campuses work. They just need someone without them. through on campus. . . . The fact that to give them the push and the encour- they graduate in the numbers that they agement to get it done. Erkkila: Are there lessons to learn from do and show that resiliency amazes me I am also one of the cofounders of even the most negative experiences with on a regular basis. However, how many Black Lives Matter Minneapolis. We a college institution? of those amazing, bright minds do we passed a city ordinance repealing the lose because no one is paying attention city laws against lurking and spitting, Grimm: I look back on my experi- to them? which police used to target people of ence, and I think it shaped me. My If academic institutions want their color and homeless people. mentor told me that you cannot let students to thrive, then they need a stu- these traumatizing events define you. dent body that reflects the population of Erkkila: What role do college students [You] shouldn’t negate the effect [they the world they live in. If you don’t teach play both in the movement for racial jus- have on] you, but you have to find your students how to live in a multicul- tice and more generally as civic agents? something positive to do with that tural community, they won’t be able to negativity. I think of it as alchemy: it’s function in the real world. They’re still Grimm: Young people’s energy and negative stuff that you turn into gold. trying to reflect a homogenous society resilience is something to be admired. You pull what you can from those that doesn’t exist. If an educational insti- We were at a rally after the protests in experiences, the traits that help you go tution or a business or nonprofit cannot Ferguson[, Missouri,] with about three through them in the first place, and learn to work with “minority” groups hundred people. Someone was hit by a you start to figure out who you are and of people, they are going to go extinct. car, an ambulance came, and we were what makes you. Those “minority” groups will not be in ready to shut it down and not do the I believe that if I had stayed at my the minority for very much longer. planned takeover of the freeway. And school for another year, I would not right at that moment, all of these col- have survived. Students have to take Erkkila: What kind of work have you lege students, hundreds chanting and care of themselves first. But also realize done since college, both professionally cheering, walked up the street. And [that when you’re in college], you’re in and in your activism? we immediately knew we were going a microcosm of society, and you have a to be fine. They literally brought life lot more weight than in the “real world.” Grimm: The basis of what I [did as the to something that was so terrifying Your voice is amplified, so you have this racial justice coordinator at MPIRG was] and allowed people to be courageous. opportunity to leverage that. < creating spaces where people felt free to I do not know if we would have done

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[PERSPECTIVE] were wary of visiting with the coordinators, fearing the appointments The View from Alumni Relations: Creating were just a ploy to ask for gifts. Faculty a Culture of Giving and Engagement and staff were not always receptive to acting on alumni’s feedback about  NINI POORE, Director of External Relations and Annual Giving Programs at the University of undergraduate education. Michigan Once administrators and advancement professionals saw how many alumni were participating, Rather than approaching graduates that grew from their own college-to-life however, they reevaluated. solely as potential donors, what if experience. After eight thousand interviews, alumni relations and development we can say that alumni enjoy the professionals asked alumni of all ages a A Different Kind of Gift experience, appreciate being asked set of open-ended questions unrelated The LSA College Connections program for feedback, and feel like partners in to giving, and listened closely to their came out of a traditional advancement addressing important issues at their responses? What would colleges and model that positioned alumni as donors, alma mater. They like being reconnected universities learn that they could apply not partners or coeducators. College to their former programs and faculty, to the educational experience for current leadership thought that interviewing and they step up to help current students? What if administrators and graduates would help us identify donors students. faculty welcomed development staff as for our capital campaign. Initially, We discovered that College partners in the educational process? we targeted alumni with major gift Connections was a good resource for What if development professionals potential, but the more we dug into identifying donors and improving understood themselves as helping to the information alumni shared with annual fund retention, but it was a improve the educational experience and us, the more we realized the value of great resource for gathering ideas to prepare the next generation of civically the program beyond a fiscal pipeline strengthen our academic offerings and engaged citizens? strategy. for giving former students intellectually As director of external relations We opened our interviews to former stimulating and professionally beneficial and annual giving programs at the students of all ages regardless of giving opportunities to engage with current University of Michigan College of history and looked beyond the scope students. The college has used findings Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA), I of advancement, shifting our focus to improve the curriculum, advising oversee College Connections, a program to evaluating the entire University of process, and student programs. Through in which we listen to graduates’ stories Michigan experience and trying to the interviews, the college has also of their experiences both during and understand its effect on graduates’ identified graduates to serve as mentors after college and use their insights lives and work. We began to gather and internship sponsors, teach classes, and recommendations to better the information about our alumni’s time as speak as experts on current issues, university. We hire new graduates as students (including their community and collaborate on faculty initiatives. College Connections coordinators, involvement), their engagement with Because College Connections invites who share college updates and conduct the college and their communities all alumni to participate, the program listening visits with alumni. At no point today, and their hopes for the college gives groups that are normally do they ask participants for money. in the future. We documented the underrepresented opportunities to be College Connections has conversations as oral history projects heard, to volunteer, and to provide revolutionized the way we think about and tracked opportunities for guidance to the college. development and alumni relations. We improvement. think that a “both/and” culture of giving College Connections had as many Civic Connections and engagement has emerged: alumni detractors as supporters in its infancy. Through the College Connections are inclined both to give financially Administrators questioned how LSA interview process, we are also learning to their alma mater—often in modest could justify the return on investment more about how alumni understand ways—and to act as advocates for and of sending College Connections themselves as civic actors. Some of what even coeducators in implementing coordinators to talk to people without we have learned relates to differences socially responsive, real-world learning returning with money. Some alumni in generational attitudes. For example,

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 15 advancement professionals primarily focus on the business of building rela- tionships to raise money to address needs and priorities, not on how to develop a civically engaged alumni base. But I do see signs of change. Thirty years ago, no one went to college saying they wanted to become a fundraiser. Today, I see students go into advance- ment because it appeals to their desire to make a difference in society. More schools are offering philanthropy intern- ships, classes, and degrees. The field is becoming more sophisticated as the art and science of fundraising evolves. Through the College Connections program, a recent graduate (right) interviews a fellow alumnus, now a foreign service officer at the US Department of State. (Photo courtesy of the University of Michigan College of Literature, Young advancement professionals Science, and the Arts) are enthusiastic about their work and willing to try new ideas. while most alumni agree that colleges we would not even have thought to use Yet even under the best conditions, it and universities have a responsibility this term or wonder where it’s taking us. is difficult to foster a common culture to serve society, we found that older between advancement and academia. alumni often view civic engagement Can Alumni Relations Staff Become We have no platform for a conversation as a personal choice rather than a cur- Civic Professionals? about how advancement professionals ricular priority, and middle-aged alumni I love my job in advancement, but the might reimagine our jobs as people speak of it as a high school requirement. kind of opportunity I had in launching who build relationships with civically However, our recent graduates often College Connections was rare. It was engaged alumni. This is the case even talk about civic engagement as a social dependent on an unusually innovative as we are asked to raise funds for things or moral responsibility. Feedback from office culture and a supportive dean. In like experiential learning, which lay recent graduates is particularly valuable fact, over the past thirty years working the groundwork for the civic-minded because it allows us to provide a more in the alumni relations and development graduates we work with every day. relevant educational experience for cur- fields at private and public institutions, Even though changing the field is rent students and more useful services to independent schools, and flagship problematic, it is not impossible. Some help our graduates succeed. universities, I have had only a few presidents and deans are shifting the Our former students told us that opportunities to deviate from traditional paradigm. Higher education associations being exposed to diverse views and advancement practices. that support community-based learning problem-solving skills during college Changing the professional culture of and the model of the “engaged institu- strongly influenced how they thought higher education philanthropy presents tion” can reach out to alumni relations about the world and interacted with it real challenges. The costs to run uni- professionals as key allies in alumni lis- after graduation. Now, as they mentor versities are beyond what students can tening projects. Gatherings like Citizen current students or bring their life pay in tuition, and we must make up the Alum institutes and the Kettering lessons back into our classrooms as difference somewhere, often through Foundation’s Learning Exchange on speakers, alumni are becoming coeduca- private donations in an increasingly Civically Engaged Alumni workshops tors. Faculty have invited alumni to help competitive philanthropic arena. The are invaluable as they bring people them teach topics as disparate as mar- advancement field has high turnover due in diverse institutional roles together keting yourself with a liberal arts degree, to the pressures of trying to meet goals, around the challenges of building ties breaking down barriers to bipartisan- burnout from the pace, and low-paying with former students who identify as ship, and stopping human trafficking. entry-level salaries. Many institutions do civic actors. Along with the work I do We are in the early stages of under- not provide adequate training for devel- with College Connections, these trends standing what it means to engage with opment staff who come from a variety and opportunities make me persistently alumni as coeducators, but ten years ago, of backgrounds. With these pressures, hopeful. <

16 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES

[RESEARCH AND EVALUATION] with 99 percent reporting that they had discussed political issues with friends, Civic Identity and Agency after College: 53 percent noting that they had worked Alumni Voices from Three Academic Civic with a group to solve community problems, and 40 percent stating Engagement Programs that they had reached out to a public official to express their opinions about  RICHARD M. BATTISTONI, Professor of Political Science and Public and Community Service Studies at policy issues. More than 82 percent of Providence College respondents reported volunteering or  TANIA D. MITCHELL, Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of Minnesota participating in community service in the last year, compared with 25 percent of the national population and 39 A few years ago, we worked with a team as fifteen years earlier, and received percent of the nation’s college graduates of colleagues to undertake a study of responses from 192 alumni. Eager to with a bachelor’s degree or higher the civic identity and agency of alumni understand how alumni interpreted (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2016). from three longstanding, developmental, what we learned from those interven- Yet in interviews and focus groups, curricular civic engagement programs: tions, we conducted a series of focus when we asked graduates about their the one-year Public Service Scholars groups at each campus with fifty-six current civic participation, their per- Program at Stanford University, the two-year Citizen Scholars Program at the University of Massachusetts More than 97 percent of respondents reported they were Amherst, and the four-year Public and Community Service Studies major at registered to vote, and political efficacy among the gradu- Providence College. (See Mitchell et ates responding to the survey was also quite high. al. 2011 for more information on these programs.) Although the programs differ in program alumni during reunion events sonal reflections did not show the same length, all three are cohort based and at all three campuses in 2014 and 2015. confidence that our survey results sug- have a shared mission to build civic We present some of the results from our gested. A Providence College alumnus agency and encourage students to view interviews, survey, and focus groups in (class of 2006) seemed to be struggling themselves as scholars engaged in cre- this article. to understand how he should be engaged ating a better world. All of the programs as he asked, “Is engagement something require students to work in the commu- Conflicting Views of Self as that’s [a] volunteer [opportunity] and nity and complete a capstone experience Civic Actor then you do it in your extra time . . . or (either research or projects addressing a The survey results suggested a highly is it something that’s critical and that public issue). The programs also provide engaged alumni group. More than 97 challenges you and should be discom- opportunities for students to work in the percent of respondents reported they forting and should be a responsibility?” same community setting over multiple were registered to vote, and political A Stanford University alumna (class of semesters. We offered some preliminary efficacy among the graduates responding 2002) asked, “[Am I] doing enough?” results from this research project in an to the survey was also quite high. The and “Where do I feel like I can make earlier article (Mitchell et al. 2013). mean response to the item “I feel that a difference?” as she sought to find During the summer of 2012, we I have a pretty good understanding of the best way to live her civic commit- conducted in-depth interviews with a the political issues facing our country” ments. She believed that she might purposefully selected, representative was 4.72 on a six-point Likert-type never stop questioning whether she sample (by race, gender, and cohort) scale (with a standard deviation (SD) was contributing in all the ways that of eleven graduates of each program, of 0.931), and alumni believed they had she could, and she said this was “hard all of whom had graduated at least five “a role to play in the political process” . . . because you don’t want to have years previously. We then distributed an (mean = 4.63; SD = 1.188). Alumni also complacency but you don’t want to also online survey to almost four hundred demonstrated that they had acted on just be constantly downing yourself.” people, who had graduated as many this belief in the last twelve months,

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 17 many attributed to the lessons learned in their undergraduate civic engagement programs. Alumni viewed their civic and political identities as integrated in their professional, social, and family circles. An alumna of Providence College (class of 2000) reflected this perspective:

I’m heavily involved in this sort of shared community gardening experience now, [which] feels like a civic action. Helping to open this birth center feels like a civic action. Teaching therapists to use nonviolence in their practice feels like Citizen Scholars Program alumni attend a reunion event at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. a civic action. Boycotting Walmart (Photo by Art Keene) feels like a civic action. . . . I think that’s why it’s hard to answer the Similarly, many of our respondents An Integrated Civic Self question like, “Well, I go to my 9:00 faulted themselves for not doing enough As the conversations continued, many of to 5:00 job and then I go perform my politically. An alumna of Stanford the graduates articulated ways they did civic actions.” It’s like they have to University (class of 1995) expressed this see themselves acting on their civic and be the same thing for me. . . . I think conflict: political commitments. Their political that was the part that drew me to [the identities took on a more local focus Providence College] program because Bare minimum, I vote. Bare as alumni worked to build communi- I . . . needed for those two things to minimum, I volunteer with my ties where they live. A University of be intertwined. children’s school. Bare minimum, Massachusetts alumna (class of 2009) I watch out for my neighbor next shared her work to enact her vision of Alumni worked to avoid the door. . . . To me that’s just what social change: bifurcation of their civic and you do as a good citizen. I think if professional selves and sought to engage I were more of an active civic and One of the primary ways I engage socially and professionally in ways that community participant I would do civically [is] fighting tooth and reflected the civic aims they identified more. . . . Do I care about it? Do I nail to make sure that I continue to for themselves and their communities. want the right things to happen? have really connected relationships This was best demonstrated as alumni Yes. Do I teach my children? Yes. Do with people in my life. I see it as . . . spoke about their careers. I actually do more to advocate for one of the hugest ways that . . . this social justice on a local arena level to society is . . . hurtful to me and the Weaving Civic Practice into the national level? Not so much. people around me. . . . Day by day . . . Workplace building a community that’s really Graduates from these programs seemed This alumna’s dilemma reflected reflective of what I see around me. to weave civic theory and practice what we heard from many of those we [Connecting] with folks that . . . I’m into their workplaces. An alumna of interviewed. Because of work and/or not supposed to be connected to as Providence College (class of 2000) family obligations, they felt unable to be a middle-class white girl . . . so that explained, involved in community and politics at they [can] accomplish their goals [is] the level they had been as undergraduate the number one way that I see myself We’re not here at a school anymore students. Time and place constraints engaging in social change. where you’re able to have a clear cause prevented them from seeing themselves of an injustice that you can really as the kind of civic actors they aspired Graduates suggested that they saw get at. It’s so much bigger out in the to be. civic action as a way of life, something world that we enact civic engagement

18 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES

through our jobs in looking at the mattered. . . . That was where it attempting to translate the ideas of citi- systems and how they work and at the clicked that it’s going to be more than zenship and social justice they learned in workplace and how to make things just putting food on a plate. college to key elements of their everyday more just. lives. More specifically, we see gradu- Developing Agency after College ates incorporating civic identities and The civic lessons of the Providence We heard alumni discuss how they values into their workplaces, both in College program inspired another and their understanding of themselves terms of their actions and the processes graduate (class of 1998) to prioritize had changed since they had completed by which they arrive at workplace deci- relationships and community building their programs. As one graduate of sions. And more than anything else, we in the workplace: Providence College (class of 2009) put it, see graduates who are questioning and complicating notions of what it means to One of the best strengths I feel that I I think about who I was when I came be engaged, to be of “service” to others learned from this program and that as a freshman and how I talked about and the public. continues to serve me in my work . . . service. I talked about working at What is most interesting in the is the importance of being part of a Special Olympics. That’s what I did context of a national conversation on community. And so, the decisions on Saturdays. . . . And I think what reimagining alumnihood is the way that I make aren’t just mine to make. the difference was, through this these alumni grapple with questions They’re in consultation with the program, I really understood my of civic identity and action after col- people that I work with. . . . There’s values and what motivated me to do lege. Interviews and focus groups show lots of disagreement and there’s lots these things. And then it became, alumni who attribute a set of civic value of conversation. But it’s important to “This isn’t what I do. It’s who I commitments to their undergraduate me, having come from this program, am and how I see the world and programs and who aspire to live up to to think in relationship with people, how I live those values.” So, once I these commitments. The time and place to act in relationship to people. graduated, I couldn’t not work on a constraints of life after college make it campaign. I couldn’t not be involved. difficult for them to be engaged in the We witnessed graduates grapple with same ways they were in college. They what these undergraduate programs As she described how her seem always to be questioning the bal- taught them about being a civic actor understandings of her civic ance between work, family and personal and how to apply that in their daily responsibility had expanded, a life, and civic action. But they also seem lives. Fifty-seven percent of respondents University of Massachusetts alumna to find civic purpose through con- strongly agreed that their undergraduate (class of 2008) also explained how she is necting their identities at work, within civic engagement program influenced “really trying to bring that energy and their families, and as consumers to their their choice of career, and only 8 that light into all these things that I do.” civic identities, particularly within their percent reported that the program She talked about her engagement with local contexts. < had no influence on their choice of those from whom she has “a completely career. One alumna of the University of different religious, political, geographic” REFERENCES Massachusetts (class of 2002) remarked, perspective, emphasizing that the lessons BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. 2016. Volunteering in the United States, 2015. https:// of the civic engagement program—that www.bls.gov/news.release/volun.nr0.htm. At one point I had the opportunity “the personal is political”—encouraged MITCHELL, TANIA D., RICHARD M. BATTISTONI, to work in marketing for a property her efforts “to live that out in all ARTHUR S. KEENE, and JOHN REIFF. 2013. “Programs that Build Civic Identity: A Study of management company and . . . I different things that I do.” Alumni.” Diversity & Democracy 16 (3): 22–23. could stay there or I could start a https://www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy/2013/ job where I was going to be teaching Concluding Thoughts summer/mitchell-battistoni-keene-reiff. MITCHELL, TANIA, VIRGINIA VISCONTI, ARTHUR adults workplace math. And the What emerged from the interviews KEENE, and RICHARD BATTISTONI. 2011. marketing job was making triple and focus group sessions is a picture of “Educating for Democratic Leadership at what the workplace math job was civic identity and action that is rich but Stanford, UMass, and Providence College.” In From Command to Community: A New going to be. . . . I was in grad school, more focused and local than traditional Approach to Leadership Education in Colleges you know it would really help but conceptions or what these alumni likely and Universities, edited by Nicholas V. Longo and Cynthia M. Gibson, 115–48. Lebanon, NH: at the end it was living with myself envisioned when they were undergrad- University of New England Press. and knowing that my actions uate students. We find these graduates

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 19 [RESEARCH AND EVALUATION] community in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; a greater appreciation for Life Outside the Bubble: Reflections from diversity; and a heightened ability and Wake Forest University Alumni motivation to speak to others across difference.  JILL J. McMILLAN, Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication at Wake Forest University

 KATY J. HARRIGER, Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest Understanding the Bubble University Most respondents praised their college

 CHRISTY M. BUCHANAN, Professor in the Department of Psychology and Senior Associate Dean for education, yet most interviewees (DFs Academic Advising at Wake Forest University and CCs alike) also criticized what they

 STEPHANIE K. GUSLER, Former Graduate Student in the Department of Psychology at Wake Forest termed “the Wake Forest bubble,” an University, Doctoral Student in the Clinical Child Psychology Program at the University of Kansas invisible barrier that “protects” students from the realities of life beyond campus. One respondent stated,

How can colleges and universities better In a study on the long-term impact I think Wake Forest is really kind of prepare students to be civically engaged of learning to deliberate (Harriger et al. in a bubble, right? We are a closed after they graduate? At Wake Forest 2017, 2015), we interviewed forty alumni, off campus from the rest of the com- University, we asked alumni how well all of whom graduated from Wake Forest munity, and I feel like when I was a the university had equipped them for in 2005. Half of the alumni had par- student that the relationship between their civic and political roles in society ticipated in a four-year program called the students at Wake Forest and the and how it might do this more effectively Democracy Fellows, where they learned people who lived in town was kind of in the future. We wanted to know how the theory and practice of deliberative nonexistent. We weren’t necessarily the process of learning to deliberate dialogue. The other half were alumni giving back to the community, and might affect alumni’s civic engagement from a class cohort selected to match the the community wasn’t necessarily in the “real world.” Deliberative dialogue demographics of the Democracy Fellows wanting to get involved with us. provides a forum for people to debate group in terms of college major, race, complex issues productively and and gender. (In this article, we refer to After years of round-the-clock com- respectfully, find common ground, build the Democracy Fellows alumni as DFs munity access, Wake Forest installed the critical thinking skills required to and the class cohort alumni as CCs.) gates at three campus entrances in 1996, see issues from different perspectives, We interviewed the alumni by video limiting access to campus between 10:00 and recognize their roles as citizens conference in 2014 and 2015, and they p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Despite legitimate capable of creating change (Harriger and responded to an online survey following safety concerns, students, faculty, McMillan 2007). the interview. administrators, and staff worried even When we asked then that “Wake Fortress” might further participants how contribute to the sense that students Wake Forest could resided in a “rarefied bubble” (McMillan better prepare 2004, 195). students for future However, the bubble to which both civic engagement, DFs and CCs referred is more meta- their suggestions phorical than material; one respondent coalesced around described it as “a huge, symbolic wall” what both DFs and surrounding the campus. Some alumni CCs called “bursting attributed this barrier to institutional the Wake Forest policies, but most respondents pointed bubble.” Specifically, to students’ “fear of the unknown” they recommended and a reluctance to “get outside their cultivating a more comfort zones.” A community delib- Students participate in a Wake Forest University Campus Deliberation. (Photo by proactive connec- erative dialogue that DFs planned and Ken Bennett, Wake Forest University) tion with their executed during their junior year might

20 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES have raised their consciousness, as DFs that explore social and political prob- the class of ’05 recognized that they were described the bubble as a barrier to lems, more service learning, and more schooled in a homogeneous, majority students’ political and social awareness local internships. One CC suggested white, affluent environment. Although twice as often as did CCs. Not only “some requirement for students to they examined diverse ideas in class, did the experience force DFs from the attend town hall meetings, city council they recalled an ethnic and cultural bubble but it also exposed tensions meetings, and school board meetings.” sameness that had not prepared them between “town and gown” of which CCs The DFs outpaced the CCs in sug- for the diversity they encountered after may have been unaware. gesting that citizenship extends beyond college. They criticized themselves and Alumni from both groups, many traditional notions of service such as Wake Forest for not engaging more of whom professed love for their alma volunteering in a soup kitchen. The DFs with people in the more racially, ethni- mater, in retrospect saw it, in the words more often wove a subtle counternarra- cally, and socioeconomically diverse of one respondent, as a place of “privi- tive that featured actions such as being Winston-Salem. lege” that shielded many “children of knowledgeable about current issues and Twice as many DFs as CCs men- affluence,” including themselves, from engaging in political talk as integral tioned the importance of developing political and social engagement. One CC parts of civic engagement. Training in understanding of difference, perhaps opined that although he understood the deliberative dialogue seemed to generate because DFs’ deliberative dialogue need for safety, the school was “missing more awareness of the importance of training taught them to look for it—in opportunities” beyond its walls. The rec- civic and political involvement. the personal stories they heard, the ommendations that our alumni, DFs and Some respondents reflected the examination of the values that people CCs alike, proposed fall into three broad opinion of democracy and higher held dear, and the common ground categories: connect with the community, education researcher Nancy L. Thomas they sought to establish (Diebel 2016). enhance awareness of diversity, and (1998) when she argued that colleges One poignant example came from a DF increase opportunities for discussion and universities have too long played who cited the 1960 sit-ins to desegregate and dialogue. the role of “expert” to their neighbors, lunch counters, which began at the resisting the more egalitarian posture of Woolworth’s in nearby Greensboro, Connect with the Community “partner,” and that they often have not North Carolina, and even involved Wake Our alumni expressed a profound, even “listened” well to community needs. The Forest students at the Winston-Salem wistful, sense that they had spent their alumni we studied, perhaps informed by Woolworth’s weeks later: college years in a town they hardly knew. their experiences since college, seemed One DF remarked, “Winston-Salem to regard the ideal relationship as a The whole [civil] rights movement is an incredibly dynamic community two-way street with opportunities to I think is really important. . . . You that I discovered probably the last eight learn from the community as well as to know we (the college) were like months I lived there. There’s a whole lot instruct it. One DF described a recip- 30 miles from the Woolworth’s in of things going on and there needs to be rocal relationship with his community Greensboro. . . . There are so many a push to get students out of the class- after graduation: children of affluence [who] prob- room and into the community.” Another ably have no idea about some of the DF admonished Wake Forest to look I feel like I am a citizen of my town struggles. . . . They’re not bad people; close to home for social and political . . . that I live here, I need to con- they just don’t know about it. And I issues to examine in the classroom: tribute here. So I guess [I would like] think it’s something worth thinking for Wake [Forest] to feel more like about what that struggle meant to so There’s homeless people in . . . we’re trying to have an impact on many different people. Winston[-Salem] and . . . there’s Winston-Salem, and Winston-Salem poverty. . . . I feel that there needs has impact on us. Alumni suggested ways to promote to be more of an attitude from the the examination of difference, privilege, administration . . . that the school Enhance Awareness of Diversity and systemic inequality, including really values social awareness. Political theorist Iris Marion Young bringing provocative speakers to (1999) has argued that one of democ- campus, encouraging more study abroad Suggested remedies, especially from racy’s greatest challenges is navigating experiences, and urging professors to CCs, leaned heavily toward academic difference: different people, ideas, lan- be fearless about allowing controversial reforms, such as offering more classes guage, races, and cultures. Members of subjects to be aired in their classrooms

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 21 because, as one DF argued, “you just CCs recognized discussion and dia- campus-wide deliberative dialogues with might learn something from even those logue as important components missing a focus on inclusivity. After the 2014 with whom you disagree.” from their college experience. One dialogue, the university formed action CC proposed a curricular change that teams to investigate ways to implement Increase Opportunities for would establish the value of deliberative the outcomes of these deliberative Discussion and Dialogue dialogue: dialogues (http://community.wfu.edu/). All interviewees favored widespread dis- A recent pilot for a first-year experience cussion and dialogue as the best solution Instead of [first-year seminars course, which supports first-year stu- for bursting the bubble. Respondents focused on] individual professors’ dents’ transition to college, incorporated from both groups offered ideas about niche interests, have classes that [are] deliberative principles and skills. Initial how that might be accomplished, geared more towards being civic assessments indicate the course has a including a CC who recommended where you . . . learn how to have positive impact on curiosity about and fostering “an open environment to discussions with other people about comfort with differences. The univer- appreciate different points of view and ideas that [don’t devolve] into all the sity is considering how to integrate active listening on both sides” and a pitfalls of . . . straw man arguments. deliberative dialogue and community DF who suggested finding “a way to Instead, . . . learning how to have involvement more consistently for more make sure their students are prepared civic discussion in a civilized and students, which might help address to be engaged in . . . the conversation” calm, respectful way would be a good the prevailing climate of division that [emphasis added]. Still, DFs, such as the use of time. plagues our nation. Wake Forest also one below, were more adamant than CCs recently opened a downtown campus about the value of dialogue and quicker Conclusion that, by both design and accident, is to recommend deliberative training: When these members of the class of literally and figuratively doing exactly ’05 evaluated their civic preparation as its alumni advised: taking students A lot of stuff we talked about in at Wake Forest, their assessment was outside of the bubble. < Democracy Fellows was teaching mixed. Although they praised much of people how to talk to folks who don’t their college education, these alumni REFERENCES have the same beliefs as they do. And had learned from the “real world” that DIEBEL, ALICE. 2016. Facilitating Public Issues: Best Practices. Dayton, Ohio: National Issues Forum I’m not talking about sitting down the life of a citizen is not as comfortable Institute. https://www.nifi.org/en/catalog/product/ and just having a conversation. I as living in the bubble might have led facilitating-public-issues-best-practices-alice- mean like let’s get out the marker them to believe. Rather, it is messy, frus- diebel. HARRIGER, KATY J., and JILL J. McMILLAN. 2007. board, what can we actually . . . solve? trating, and sometimes disappointing. Speaking of Politics: Preparing College Students . . . You can find some common Still, these young adults offered remedies for Democratic Citizenship through Deliberative ground with everyone. to that discomfort: engage in your com- Dialogue. Dayton, Ohio: Kettering Foundation Press. munity; grapple with people and ideas HARRIGER, KATY, JILL J. McMILLAN, CHRISTY M. that challenge your BUCHANAN, and STEPHANIE GUSLER. 2015. own; and talk, talk, “The Long-Term Impact of Learning to Deliberate.” Diversity & Democracy 18 (4): talk to discover what 27–28. https://www.aacu.org/diversity unites, not divides, democracy/2015/fall/harriger. you from others. HARRIGER, KATY, JILL McMILLAN, CHRISTY BUCHANAN, and STEPHANIE GUSLER. 2017. Wake Forest The Long-Term Impact of Learning to Deliberate: has taken steps in A Follow-Up Study of Democracy Fellows and a Class Cohort. Dayton, Ohio: Kettering response to these Foundation Press. and other findings McMILLAN, JILL J. 2004. “The Potential for Civic in two published Learning in Higher Education: ‘Teaching Democracy by Being Democratic.’” Southern studies of the DF Communication Journal 69 (3): 188–205. program (Harriger THOMAS, NANCY L. 1998. Community Perceptions: Wake Forest University Provost Rogan Kersh (right) and then Winston-Salem and McMillan 2007; What Higher Education Can Learn by Listening to Communities. Tallahasee, Florida: American State University Dean Corey D. B. Walker team teach a community engagement Harriger et al. 2017). course at Wake Forest’s new downtown campus. (Photo by Ken Bennett, Wake Council of Education. Forest University) Since 2012, Wake YOUNG, IRIS MARION. 1999. “Communication and Forest has held three the Other.” Kettering Review 17 (1): 21–30.

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[CAMPUS PRACTICE] society within their occupations and communities. This vision gave RU–N The Legacy of an Anchor Institution: new perspectives on the alumni relation- Reclaiming the University of Newark ship, which have helped us reflect on our identity as an anchor institution.  QUINTUS R. JETT, Citizen Alum Director at Rutgers University–Newark My role since 2016 has been to investigate and recommend strategies for transforming our institution’s rela- tionship with alumni. I work through “Our alumni are testimony to [Rutgers Newark. The fact that many of our the Office of the Chancellor, supported University–Newark’s] legacy and strength students come from the city of Newark by a graduate fellow and in partnership as a gateway to opportunity and excel- and the surrounding areas further with the RU–N advancement team. lence for our graduates, and we seek underscores our shared destiny with Our goal is to engage alumni as allies them as collaborators to further manifest our community. as we reenergize our public mission RU–N’s longstanding identity as a uni- Over the past two years, we have and prepare our students to become versity that is of Newark (not simply ‘in’ started to explore ways to transform our engaged citizens. We have incorporated Newark).” relationship with alumni, inspired by this alumni engagement approach into the national Citizen Alum movement. the spring 2017 update to our strategic —Rutgers University–Newark: Where In the process, we have discovered that plan (Rutgers University–Newark 2017). Opportunity Meets Excellence, our efforts to engage our alumni and RU–N is emphasizing our anchor Spring 2017 Update to the university’s community rest on telling the RU–N institution identity as we build 2014 strategic plan story and reclaiming our institution’s relationships with and tell our story forgotten legacies. As we claim our to current and future alumni. Four In 2014, following the arrival of institutional identity as a university that years ago, RU–N created commence- Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Rutgers is of Newark, not simply in it, we are ment exercises more aligned with our University–Newark (RU–N) publicly examining the roots of our institutional identity by including more schools and embraced our role as an anchor institu- culture by tracing our university’s his- programs, illustrating our anchor insti- tion—one with deep connections to tory back to the days when it was called tution mission through video stories our city. We enshrined this anchor the University of Newark, before it of graduating students, and selecting institution identity, as well as our joined the Rutgers system in 1946. commencement speakers that reflect commitment to providing educational RU–N’s identity (such as 2018 speaker access to a diverse student body, in our A Vision for Alumni Engagement Dana Owens, known professionally 2014 strategic plan, developed through In 2016, RU–N began deliberately as Queen Latifah, who grew up in the an expansive listening and visioning examining our engagement with Newark area). process that included the full spectrum alumni through Citizen Alum Newark. In addition, RU–N held its first of RU–N stakeholder groups (students, Our senior leadership—specifically annual convocation to welcome staff, faculty, alumni, neighbors, and Chancellor Cantor, Executive Vice incoming students in fall 2017. This new community partners). Chancellor and Provost Jerome D. tradition presents an opportunity for Our campus is one of several in Williams, and Vice Chancellor for RU–N to introduce future alumni to our the Rutgers, the State University of Development Irene O’Brien—has identity and history. New Jersey system. RU–N is located invested in exploring Citizen Alum as In fall 2018, RU–N will formally open in Newark, a city that presents oppor- a theory of change for higher education its Alumni House, located a block from tunities for engaged learning and that aligns with our institution’s priorities the main campus. The center is RU–N’s scholarship. The university is directing outlined in our strategic plan (Rutgers concrete pledge to maintain relation- its resources toward place-based initia- University–Newark 2014). Citizen Alum ships with our students after graduation. tives—including research, teaching, presents a vision in which alumni help It provides spaces for alumni living in, student projects, service learning, and fulfill the democratic purpose of their working in, or visiting the Newark/ cocurricular activities—that will help alma maters, join in transforming higher New York City area to reconnect and us listen and contribute to the aspira- education, and participate as engaged cit- participate in advancing the RU–N story tions of those living and working in izens in the public work of a democratic and legacies.

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 23 Reclaiming Our History Recognizing our institution’s pre- Rutgers history and identity as the University of Newark provides relevance to the transformations Citizen Alum aims to spark. We are reclaiming the University of Newark’s legacy of serving nontraditional students from the city and preparing students for civic life after graduation. Connecting this legacy to RU–N’s current mission and identity inspires public dialogue about RU–N as a space where academic and city life intersect intellectually, practically, and aspirationally. 2018 doctoral degree recipients from Rutgers Graduate School–Newark. (Photo by Karen Sanderson) The early twentieth century was a bustling period for industry, art, and culture in Newark, and new colleges with the balance being Protestant and nearly faded from public memory, due and professional schools emerged to Catholic (Wechsler 2010). to lapses in reintroducing the complete serve its local populations. Five of Most of today’s Newark residents RU–N origin story to successive gen- these institutions combined to form and Rutgers University students, erations. Remarkably, the ethos of the the University of Newark in 1936. The faculty, staff, and alumni have never University of Newark’s identity endures university aimed to develop an active heard of the University of Newark, in RU–N’s culture of educational access. citizenry and educated electorate for yet seven decades after its merger RU–N will include future, new, and the state of New Jersey, create civic with Rutgers, its successor institution existing alumni in rediscovering the leaders and professionals for the city of Rutgers University–Newark continues university’s “lost” legacy and will collab- Newark from its own population, and to emphasize educational access in its orate with them to transform the alumni supply “opportunity, without regard mission. The RU–N student popula- culture of our anchor institution. < to race, creed, or color, for young men tion is nontraditional for a research and women from the lower and middle university. More than 80 percent of REFERENCES income levels” (Women’s Committee of students are commuters, and only RUTGERS UNIVERSITY–NEWARK. 2014. Rutgers University–Newark: Where Opportunity Meets the University of Newark Development about half of undergraduates are Excellence, Strategic Plan 2014. Newark, NJ: Fund Campaign 1938, 14). first-time, full-time students. Being a Rutgers University–Newark. https://law.rutgers. Education historian Harold S. first-generation American or a first- edu/sites/law/files/attachments/rutgers_ strategic_plan.pdf. Wechsler (2010) depicted the University generation college student is common RUTGERS UNIVERSITY–NEWARK. 2017. “Deep of Newark as an institution where aca- across our student body. RU-N has no Dive: Alumni Engagement—Citizen Alum.” In demic life regularly intersected with the racial-ethnic majority; Asian, Black, Rutgers University–Newark: Where Opportunity Meets Excellence, Spring 2017 Update, 57. life of the city, through its students, fac- Hispanic/Latino, and non-Hispanic Newark, NJ: Rutgers University–Newark. ulty, and administrators. Students were White students each make up less than https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/sites/default/ files/ru-n_strategic_plan_update_ predominantly from Newark and sur- 30 percent of the student population. spring_2017_w-appendices.pdf. rounding areas in northern New Jersey, U.S. News and World Report (2018) has U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT. 2018. “Campus including students that some even today ranked our university as the nation’s Ethnic Diversity: National Universities.” U.S. News and World Report. https://www.usnews. would call “nontraditional.” Many held most ethnically diverse for many years. com/best-colleges/rankings/national- jobs and paid for their own education RU–N’s fundamental identity—as universities/campus-ethnic-diversity. while supporting themselves or their an anchor institution of Newark, com- WECHSLER, HAROLD S. 2010. “Brewing Bachelors: The History of the University of Newark.” families. Students traveled to their day mitted to educating a diverse student Paedagogica Historica 46 (1–2): 229–49. or evening classes from work or home. population—has deeper historical roots WOMEN’S COMMITTEE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF Many were children of immigrants. than is commonly known. This identity NEWARK DEVELOPMENT FUND CAMPAIGN. 1938. Facts about the University of Newark and The student population was religiously was forged decades ago; it is not a new Its Development Plans. Newark, NJ: University diverse; about 40 percent were Jewish, branding strategy. These legacies have of Newark.

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[CAMPUS PRACTICE] arts and humanities students have devel- oped an ability to see community needs Learning to Ask: College Experiences and the and opportunities. Public Work of Arts and Humanities Alumni The listening project was a partnership among the American  LEEANN LANDS, Associate Professor of History at Kennesaw State University Studies Program, the Department of

 KRISTEN WALKER, BA in Theatre and Performance Studies (2002), MA in American Studies (2017) at Alumni Affairs, and the Department of Kennesaw State University Museums, Archives, and Rare Books.

 CHRISTINE DEBORD, BS in Communications (2011), MA in American Studies (2015) at Kennesaw The KSU Archives and the Digital State University Public Libraries of America will facilitate access to the alumni project interviews.

Critical Thinking and New Ideas Elizabeth Jarrett is a curator, artist, university’s role in promoting civic dis- Despite popular notions that the univer- designer, and Kennesaw State University positions and democratic practices, and sity is not the “real world,” many alumni (KSU) alumna committed to listening to how, collectively, we can better realize we spoke with experienced higher community needs and collaborating to higher education’s public mission. education as a microcosm of public create positive change. Based in Atlanta, life after graduation. To English and she has cofounded a local theater com- A Focus on Arts and Humanities American studies alumna Janie Mardis, pany and is now executive director of The listening project’s focus on arts critical analysis of texts exposed power Deer Bear Wolf, a nonprofit organiza- and humanities grew, in part, from relations that she now confronts as a tion that supports Atlanta artists. KSU’s membership in Imagining social worker and counselor at Hospice Jarrett was already a go-getter when America (IA). A consortium of colleges of Northeast Georgia Medical Center. she enrolled at KSU in Kennesaw, and universities advocating for the “I never felt like at any time I was just Georgia. But KSU and the Department role of arts, humanities, and design in reading the trusty old classics . . . with of Theatre and Performance Studies public life, IA works to revitalize the absolutely no reflection on what they helped her expand her vision and tal- democratic mission of higher educa- were as objects of power in the culture,” ents, increase her network, and hone her tion. As a member of both IA and she explained. “They were living works, presentation and collaboration skills. Citizen Alum, KSU was inspired by and they were works to be complicated To Jarrett, college was a creative oppor- both networks’ goals as we sought to and problematized.” tunity. “You’re on a campus with all of learn about how arts and humanities In addition to fostering critical these people who have such different graduates have realized their role as thinking skills, KSU provided students ideas and such different concentrations. civic agents, how they use their educa- space to innovate and make their own . . . It’s like an incubator,” she said. “You tion in their public work, and how the opportunities, according to English never know if you go in a coffee shop university could continue to partner education and American studies and you sit down next to somebody, with alumni to improve civic life. alumnus Yen Rodriguez. Modern they could be working in a completely Conversations with KSU’s arts and language alumna and American different sector than you, like food humanities alumni confirmed that KSU studies graduate student Nikkeshia sustainability or something. But if you faculty and students are doing remark- Wilson invited Rodriguez, then an spark a conversation . . . you might find, able work addressing public issues, often undergraduate student, to collaborate well, hey, we can work together on this.” in collaboration with outside agencies. on a forum titled “Black and Brown: Jarrett was one of eighteen publicly Students are developing skills to cross Divided We Fall.” The forum convened minded KSU arts and humanities disciplinary boundaries, apply theory university students, faculty, and staff alumni we interviewed as part of a “lis- to practical issues, build teams, and use and local community leaders of color tening project” between 2012 and 2015. democratic practices. As artists and to build bridges between marginalized Their stories help reveal what alumni humanists, they think creatively and communities. Rodriguez said that the value about their college experiences are open to new ideas and the unex- project “opened an entirely new door and what led to their success after grad- pected. Through exposure to different for me.” Now as KSU’s assistant director uation. In listening closely to our civic experiences and active membership in a of multicultural student affairs for professionals, we better understand the growing network of relationships, many race, culture, and ethnicity programs,

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 25 Practical Experiences implementation, and the day-to-day For all the university’s work of getting projects done—increases commitment to providing participants’ commitment to public students with leadership resources. She discovered this as she opportunities and creative participated in a university partnership space, the infrastructure (fostered by Visual Arts professor Diana supporting students inter- McClintock) to document and preserve ested in doing public work Paradise Garden, created by folk artist was uneven across campus. and minister Howard Finster. Moye, “I had to reach out on my who remains involved in historic preser- own,” one Interdisciplinary vation efforts in Georgia, observed, Studies Department grad- Through the Re-Generation Initiative (originated by Debra Vidali at Emory University), Kennesaw State University students express views uate said about her desire to When you’ve got a group of people on capital punishment and other issues through original performance pursue an internship with who were just, like, “Hey Paradise pieces. (Photo courtesy of Kennesaw State University) a nonprofit organization. Garden is kind of cool,” once . . . At the time, the depart- they are studying it and they’re ment had yet to develop hands-on—they’re pulling out the Rodriguez incorporates the skills he an internship program for her recently weeds and they’re doing the oral acquired through that project into his formed major. histories—all of a sudden everybody daily responsibilities. In other departments, community has got a sense of ownership, and Alumna Jessica Duvall also relationships that encourage public- they care about it . . . on a much more remarked on KSU’s openness to stu- mindedness are robust. For example, deep level. dent ideas. She began a conversation under the leadership of Department with the Department of Theatre and of Dance chair Ivan Pulinkala in Moye’s analysis might prove useful in Performance Studies about bringing 2008, KSU’s Dance program began designing future university relationships The Coming Out Monologues to collaborating with the Cobb Energy with publicly engaged alumni from the campus, which eventually resulted Performing Arts Centre to promote arts and humanities. Fostering produc- in a chance for her to codirect the arts education. In 2014, the center’s tive, reciprocal relationships between production. “KSU has worked to create arts and education arm, ArtsBridge, our alumni and the university may not a space for students to feel empowered strengthened its formal partnership only directly benefit students and other to ask,” she stated. Now Duvall is assis- with the university’s College of the participants but may also strengthen the tant director of multicultural affairs Arts. KSU faculty teach master classes university’s long-term commitment to for gender and sexuality programs in and support the partnership between its civic mission. LGBTQ Student Programs at KSU, an ArtsBridge and the local Boys and Girls We have already taken steps in office she pushed for the university Club. In addition, ArtsBridge provides this direction, creating an Office of to create when she was a student. internship opportunities for KSU Community Engagement in 2013 to Duvall uses the lessons she learned in students. KSU alumna Natalie Barrow deepen the ways KSU stakeholders, organizing for social change at KSU to spent three years as the foundation’s including alumni, connect with the encourage today’s students to challenge director of arts education and com- community. In 2015, the Carnegie boundaries and to push back if neces- munity outreach, where she supported Foundation recognized KSU with its sary. “This office wouldn’t be here—I a reciprocal relationship between the prestigious Community Engagement wouldn’t be here—if I just hadn’t asked center and KSU’s faculty and students. Classification. a question,” Duvall said. “They said “I wanted to work in my community to As KSU alumni remind us, successful we couldn’t do that [create the office]. make a difference,” Barrow explained. collaborations and public engagement And I said, ‘Why not?’” For Duvall often begin by sparking a conversation.< and other alumni, learning to ask and Active Involvement being open to collaborations translated KSU alumna Annie Moye pointed The authors wish to thank Annie Moye well from campus to professional out that democratic practices of for her suggestions on earlier versions of this contexts. involvement—in decision making, article.

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[CAMPUS PRACTICE] The Ripple Effect: Returning Adult Students Learning with Alumni

 DANIELLE HINRICHS, Associate Professor and Director of Academic Writing at Metropolitan State University

“A good citizen is conscious of and makes writing class. Through this module, efforts to think beyond themselves and to students worked in pairs to interview think about the community.” alumni involved in solving problems in Mary Vang. (Photo courtesy of Mary Vang) their communities. —Mary Vang, Metropolitan State Metropolitan State University is not University alumna a residential college; most students are the community, or somebody from the firmly rooted in local communities community was a speaker for the class,” On September 23, 2013, alumna Mary before attending the university, and they she said. “A liberal arts education . . . Vang sat down with two students from a take their college experiences, ideas, and gives you the ability and the knowledge required writing course at Metropolitan skills back to those communities. to want to do something for your com- State University, a midsize urban public The interview project was meant munity and a desire to contribute to university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with to help students practice conducting the common good.” a growing immigrant population and an original research; it also provided men- Although Vang admitted to not average student age of thirty-two. After torship for students striving to balance feeling destined to do community graduating from Metropolitan State college demands, professional goals, and engagement work, she attributed her University’s master’s program in Public investment in local communities. As a interest in public problem solving to her and Nonprofit Administration, Vang civically engaged alumna, Vang could role models and mentors, in addition to became director of a college readiness give advice and inspiration to students her liberal arts education. She explained program called GEAR UP (Gaining contemplating how to finish college and her desire to provide the same kind of Early Awareness and Readiness for pursue meaningful careers. support she received as a first-generation Undergraduate Programs). Today, she college student: is program director of TRIO Student The Conversation Support Services at Saint Paul College. When Abrego and Tilander asked Vang There was this high school counselor The students conducting the how her college education influenced her who held my hand and really walked interview, Myrna Abrego and Kei civic engagement, she replied, “[After] me through everything. . . . She Tilander, were transfer students just being a student here, I feel like I care even supplied me with all the stuff beginning an undergraduate Urban about what’s going on beyond myself. I needed for my first year of dorm Teacher Program. Both were typical . . . I see how whatever I do is going to life, like the shower [caddy], because Metropolitan State University students: impact the world. It’s those drops in the my mom didn’t know what it would adults with families, careers, and higher bucket that I’m very conscious of now, take to live [on] campus. So it really education experiences characterized by and even if I’m just working with one started there. . . . You see the need hardship and discontinuity. They chose school and [a small group of] students, and you want to be that person for all to work together and to interview Vang I know that someday it’s going to have a those students. due to their mutual interest in education. ripple effect.” With inspiration and guidance from Vang emphasized qualities of a Vang’s identity as a Hmong woman the national Citizen Alum initia- liberal education that encourage stu- is an important aspect of her role as tive, I worked with Jodi Bantley from dents to become engaged community an agent of change for students in the Metropolitan State University’s Institute members. “Every single faculty member GEAR UP program and in the Hmong for Community Engagement and [at Metropolitan State University] community. “That’s part of my life: Scholarship ​to develop a Citizen Alum incorporated some kind of project being, knowing, and growing up in this course module for my general education where we had to do something with community that is so rich and beautiful

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 27 and, at the same time, has so much participating [in class] and showing need,” she said. what I’ve learned throughout my life. During their interview, Vang also spoke honestly with Abrego For Abrego, interviewing Vang was and Tilander about the challenges of an opportunity to celebrate both cultural learning how to dedicate her time and difference and shared civic goals: energy to her career, family, profes- sion, and community: “[It] has been a I remember thinking about how she hard balancing act because the more really connects to Hmong culture I’m asked to give at work to my com- and brings in her community. She munity, the more I’m needed at church, connects to it through her own too, [and] the more my family [relies] experience, which is similar to mine. on me.” I think that because of our experi- ences we maybe put a little bit more Kei Tilander (left) and Myrna Abrego. (Photo by The Students’ Journeys power or effort into it, knowing that Danielle Hinrichs) Like many of her fellow students, Abrego if those [services] are not in place, if arrived at Metropolitan State University they don’t happen, then more people after several educational setbacks. She will live what we did. We don’t want a student intervention teacher in grew up in the Twin Cities and attended someone else to suffer like that. California’s San Juan Unified School a university in northern Minnesota just District. after high school. She recalled her expe- Abrego identified with Vang and When, several years after the Citizen rience in a class on race and gender: found needed inspiration in her college Alum interview, I asked Abrego and journey. “It definitely was reassuring. It Tilander to tell me what most influenced The topic, of course, was immigra- was inspirational,” she said. “To know them about their conversation with tion, and everybody was against that she had [grown up] like me, and she Vang, Tilander immediately replied, “I it. I don’t think what the professor was able to work and come to school, still think about her quote that I loved. A understood was you’re talking about and now she’s done. . . . I thought, drop in the bucket. The ripples. It always my parents. You’re talking about okay, I can do this.” The theme that stuck with me. Our small actions matter. my uncle, my mom, my grandma. has emerged most powerfully from the Our actions do have a ripple effect.” It’s personal. And actually, that was Citizen Alum interview project is the Our conversation was interrupted the last day I attended that class. I impact of intergenerational mentorship as a former student of Abrego’s from dropped. I just stopped going. I lost (among students who are at different Saint Paul Public Schools, sixteen or my scholarship. points in their educational or profes- seventeen years old, walked by. He and sional lives) on student success. Abrego greeted each other in Spanish. After having two children and Tilander also took inspiration from Abrego returned to our conversation spending seventeen years working at the interview with Vang. Like many concerned and a bit distracted. “He told the Saint Paul School District Bilingual students at our nontraditional university, me his sister has a baby,” she said. “She’s Education Office and several years as an Tilander wanted to attend college right younger than him. Had she been in my administrator for the Saint Paul Public after high school, but financial and school, we would have helped somehow.” Schools, Abrego enrolled in the Urban familial obstacles stood in the way. After In this moment, I realized the power Teacher Program at Metropolitan State getting married, having two children, of our students’ deep, unwavering University: and helping her husband to complete connections to and investment in his degree, she enrolled and completed their communities. Their evolving At Metro, I feel like I’m not the only an associate’s degree at a community relationships are enhanced by and one. I’m not the youngest, I’m not college before applying to the Urban contribute to the educational experience the oldest, I’m not the only Latina Teacher Program at Metropolitan State at Metropolitan State University. With voice that the professors have heard, University. She worked as a teaching a new appreciation and understanding I’m not the only mother, I’m not the assistant with middle school students of civic engagement, our students and only wife, I’m not the only divorcée. in the Saint Paul Public Schools during alumni will continue to have an impact It’s so liberating. . . . I really like her time at the university and is now on their communities. <

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[CAMPUS PRACTICE] Curating Career Success for First- Generation College Alumni

 GEORGE J. SANCHEZ, Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History at the University of Southern California

Mitzi Gaitan-Najero, a sophomore Career Challenges communications major at the I began offering this elective course University of Southern California because I was frustrated with my meet- (USC), faced a critical dilemma in her ings with college seniors who were First-generation students engage with community career trajectory in 2013. Though inter- heading toward graduation without con- partners. (Photo courtesy of University of Southern ested in a career in media, as a product crete career plans. I also found myself California Communications) of a tight-knit Latino immigrant family, counseling alumni years after gradua- Gaitan-Najero had been returning tion, helping them navigate job possibili- home to northern California every ties or graduate school options they did other students, they are often woefully summer to work in her dad’s gardening not know about as undergraduates. unprepared for the job market. business. As the first in her family to In working with low-income, first- go to college, she had become critical generation college students, most from A Safe and Supportive Community in her parents’ struggle to become legal racial minority backgrounds, I had Each fall for the past five years, my US residents, but these family commit- learned how they struggled with finding course has regularly enrolled between ments did not allow her time to pursue ways to turn their academic majors forty and fifty students from all majors, internships to explore her intended into meaningful careers. Unlike most including students in their second and career, putting her farther behind her students whose parents went to college, third years of college as well as new peers every semester. these first-generation students had very transfer students. Gaitan-Najero decided to take my limited ideas about the range of profes- The course begins by creating a safe two-unit course, Pathways to Career sions that a college degree could open community for students to discuss their Success for First-Generation College for them and even less knowledge about first-generation status. We watch video Students, which helped her land an how to get there. recordings of first-generation students internship for the Spanish-language USC employs only nine career discussing the challenges they faced television station Univision. The course counselors for eighteen thousand when they arrived on campus. This often explained the concept of unpaid intern- undergraduates at our Office of Career provides the first opportunity at USC for ships, which can be difficult to fathom Advising, a relic from the days when few the enrolled students to talk about social for someone who had worked for pay students came to USC from low-income class inequities. They discuss the wealth since a young age. From there, Gaitan- and first-generation backgrounds. and privilege they see around them, Najero secured paid internships with Now with more than three thousand their academic and personal adjustments a variety of Latino media and general first-generation college students, many to college, and the challenges they face media companies during the rest of having arrived as transfer students from because of expectations from their fami- her time at USC. Upon graduation, she community colleges, USC has an alumni lies and communities. accepted a job at Facebook working crisis that it barely recognizes. Most We read parts of Supreme Court on a new Latino business operation, a faculty and staff are not prepared to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s 2013 autobiog- stunning opportunity for a first-gener- offer career advice that is not dependent raphy, focusing on how she transitioned ation college graduate. Gaitan-Najero on students having previous exposure to from the South Bronx to Princeton juggled her role helping her undocu- professional careers, typically provided University, which makes them feel mented parents obtain legal status with through family connections. Even part of a larger movement of students her need to create opportunities for though first-generation college students and helps them find role models. herself during college and her years as graduate from USC at the same rate as We next read a series of articles that a recent graduate. spark discussion on the issue of family

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 29 obligations, concentrating on how to process students’ own feelings of guilt resulting from being away, as well as the obligations placed on them to guide their families out of poverty (Espinoza 2010; Aguis Vallejo and Lee 2012; Kwon 2014). This is usually when some students come to my office hours to admit that they send some of their financial aid home each month and others reveal that they spend hours each week translating for their immigrant parents rather than doing homework or obtaining an on- First-generation alumnae inspire current first-generation students at a student summit. (Photo courtesy of campus job. University of Southern California Communications) Next we discuss how students’ college degrees can lead to professional salaries emphasizing skill building across the prospects or recent graduates who can and how students can set realistic curriculum and developing meaningful talk about their experiences in graduate financial goals for themselves and their relationships with faculty members who school or the work sector. I have learned families. Rather than focusing on trying can become mentors and write letters of that first-generation college students to buy a home for their parents, for recommendation. tend to learn best when they hear lessons example, students may need to make reinforced by alumni who were once in sure their parents have health insurance Connecting with Alumni their position as students. in their older years. All students in the course develop their Changing the culture of an elite The course introduces students to own plans to explore careers, including research university is a long and difficult resources they can access at USC to through courses, internships, study process but one that is critical if we are become successful as students and as abroad possibilities, civic engagement, to bridge the gap between community budding professionals. For example, I and special campus programs—all of and college life for a more equitable require that they visit the office hours of which they learn about in the course future for all alumni. < one of their current instructors. We role- itself. Many students from low-income, play this encounter in my class so they racial minority backgrounds are REFERENCES can overcome their fears. Most report involved in civic engagement work in AGUIS VALLEJO, JODY, and JENNIFER LEE. 2012. “Family Obligations: The Immigrant Narrative positive outcomes, and some visits even local communities. I ask them to think and Middle-Class Individualism.” In Barrios to lead to jobs, research opportunities, or through how their extracurricular or Burbs: The Making of the Mexican American internships. community-based work can translate Middle Class, 70–103. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Many students admit that they are into long-term job opportunities, often ESPINOZA, ROBERTA. 2010. “The Good Daughter unhappy with their choice of major, indicating more about their potential Dilemma: Latinas Managing Family and School often because they feel pressure from career trajectories than their academic Demands.” Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 9 (4): 317–33. home, or have pressured themselves, to studies. Job site visits are also a key part HART RESEARCH ASSOCIATES. 2013. It Takes More select a major they perceive will lead to a of the course. They allow students to see than A Major: Employer Priorities for College high-paying career. I discuss with them a wide range of places of employment Learning and Student Success. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and the importance of high-impact practices and ask first-generation alumni about Universities. https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/ no matter what their major (Kuh 2008), their career paths. files/files/LEAP/2013_EmployerSurvey.pdf. and the skills that employers seek Students can also apply for funds I KUH, GEORGE D. 2008. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to from recent graduates (Hart Research have secured from various companies to Them, and Why They Matter. Washington, DC: Associates 2013). I talk with them about support them financially during intern- Association of American Colleges and Universities. the value of the liberal arts and critical ship opportunities. They learn about KWON, HYEYOUNG. 2014. “The Hidden Injury of thinking skills, along with the desire of the power of internship experiences Class in Korean-American Language Brokers’ employers for employees who can write from former students (including Gaitan- Lives.” Childhood 21 (1): 56–71. clearly and speak publicly. I help them as Najero) who took the course and are SOTOMAYOR, SONIA. 2013. My Beloved World. New York: Vintage Books. they pick courses for the next semester, now either graduating seniors with job

30 ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES CIVIC LEARNING FOR SHARED FUTURES Resources and Opportunities

The Kettering Foundation The Kettering Foundation’s primary research question is: what does it take to make democracy work as it should? Kettering shares its research through publications including books, brochures, papers, reports, and three periodicals (Connections, Higher Education Exchange, and Kettering Review), available at https://www.kettering.org/library. Recent Kettering publications related to articles in this issue of Diversity & Democracy include Living Democracy: Communities as Classrooms, Students as Citizens by Nan Fairley and Mark Wilson (2017) and The Long-Term Impact of Learning to Deliberate: A Follow-Up Study of Democracy Fellows and a Class Cohort by Katy Harriger, Jill McMillan, Christy Buchanan, and Stephanie Gusler (2017).

Citizen Alum Citizen Alum works to promote the engagement of alumni as “doers, not (just) donors.” Citizen Alum’s website (http://www. citizenalum.org) includes guidance for conducting alumni listening projects, information about the work of Citizen Alum member institutions, presentations, publications, and additional resources.

REGISTER NOW: AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal Conference Global Engagement and Spaces of Practice: Exploring Global Challenges across Disciplinary Boundaries October 11–13, 2018 | Seattle, Washington “Global Engagement and Spaces of Practice: Exploring Global Challenges across Disciplinary Boundaries” will consider how educators are using place-based disciplinary and interdisciplinary inquiry to focus and integrate learning across a variety of geographic, cultural, and philosophical domains to engage students in issues that matter to them and to society. Participants will share how they are connecting institutional leadership with curricular and cocurricular options to ensure that all stu- dents experience global learning, using place as a lens through which to understand the world. They will examine how these campus-wide approaches can become part of the institutional fabric, and how faculty and staff are prepared, supported, and incentivized to provide students with opportunities to apply their skills in a variety of settings, at increasingly challenging levels. For more information and to register, visit https://www.aacu.org/global.

AAC&U and the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Action Network As part of its commitment to preparing all students for civic, ethical, and social responsibility in US and global contexts, AAC&U has formed the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Action Network. The CLDE Action Network builds on the momentum generated by the 2012 White House release of the report A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future. Coordinated by Caryn McTighe Musil, AAC&U senior scholar and director of civic learning and democracy initiatives, the network includes thirteen leading civic learning organizations that are committed to making civic inquiry and engagement expected rather than elective for all college students. Diversity & Democracy regularly features research and exemplary practices developed and advanced by these partner organizations and their members:

 American Association of State Colleges and Universities  The Democracy Commitment  Anchor Institutions Task Force  Imagining America  Association of American Colleges and Universities  Institute for Democracy and Higher Education  The Bonner Foundation  Interfaith Youth Core  Bringing Theory to Practice  The Kettering Foundation  Campus Compact  NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education  Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement

DIVERSITY & DEMOCRACY n VOL. 21, NO. 2 31 US Postage PAID Nonprofit Organization Permit No. 8410 Washington, DC 1818 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009 tel 202.387.3760 fax 202.265.9532

Upcoming AAC&U Meetings About AAC&U AAC&U is the leading national association dedicated

MEETING LOCATION DATES to advancing the vitality and public standing of liberal education by making quality and equity the foundations

Network for Academic Renewal Conference for excellence in undergraduate education in service to OCTOBER Global Engagement and Spaces of Seattle, democracy. Its members are committed to extending the 11–13, 2018 Practice: Exploring Global Challenges Washington advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless across Disciplinary Boundaries of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises nearly 1,400 member institutions—including accredited public and private Network for Academic Renewal Conference NOVEMBER Atlanta, colleges, community colleges, research universities, and Transforming STEM Higher Education: 8–10, 2018 Georgia comprehensive universities of every type and size. AAC&U Confirming the Authority of Evidence functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, faculty, and staff engaged in AAC&U Annual Meeting JANUARY institutional and curricular planning. Through a broad range Raising Our Voices: Reclaiming the Atlanta, 23–26, 2019 of activities, AAC&U reinforces the collective commitment Narrative on the Value of Higher Georgia to liberal education at the national, local, and global levels. Education Its high-quality programs, publications, research, meetings, institutes, public outreach efforts, and campus-based projects help individual institutions ensure that the quality About Diversity & Democracy of student learning is central to their work as they evolve Diversity & Democracy supports higher education faculty and leaders as they to meet new economic and social challenges. Information design and implement programs that advance civic learning and democratic about AAC&U can be found at www.aacu.org. engagement, global learning, and engagement with diversity to prepare students for socially responsible action in today’s interdependent but unequal AAC&U Membership 2018 world. According to AAC&U’s Statement on Liberal Learning, “By its nature . . . MASTERS RES & DOC 17% liberal learning is global and pluralistic. It embraces the diversity of ideas and 29% experiences that characterize the social, natural, and intellectual world. To ASSOCIATES acknowledge such diversity in all its forms is both an intellectual commitment 13% and a social responsibility, for nothing less will equip us to understand our world and to pursue fruitful lives.” Diversity & Democracy features evidence, OTHER* research, and exemplary practices to assist practitioners in creating learning 18% opportunities that realize this vision. To access Diversity & Democracy online, BACCALAUREATE * Tribal colleges, specialized schools, 23% state systems and agencies, and visit www.aacu.org/diversitydemocracy. international affiliates