Through this joint civic engagement initiative of the Center for Community Service and Learning and the Michigan Leadership Initiative, each of the four units will integrate community service and leadership development into an academic course.
Civic engagement is essential to a democratic society.
In the United States, however, a growing number of people have reduced their engagement and withdrawn from participation in the community. Seventeen faculty submitted proposals for new course or curricular initiatives to prepare students for active citizenship and effective and ethical leadership of communities. William Schultz and Diann Brei, College of Engineering, to place students with community-based organizations to design and build mechanical engineering projects to partially fulfill the requirements of the capstone design course, ME 450. Frances Aparicio, Olga Gallego and Ligaya Figueras, Department of Romance Languages, to strengthen students' language and cultural learning through community service in Spanish 232. In addition, a number of events related to civic engagement are planned, including a campuswide symposium to be held in winter term.