Citizen Scholars Learning Community

Substantial attention is given by Citizen Scholars faculty, staff, and students to the work necessary to bring Program participants together as a (non-residential) learning community.  Each year begins with an overnight retreat that combines intense discussion, personal reflection, and fun.  Monthly evening gatherings and other out-of-class events add to participants’ understanding of one another.  Courses are typically organized as learning circles, where all can learn and all can teach.

The Program works hard to build community for three reasons:

1) We believe that the kinds of knowledge, skills, and attitudes we seek to develop in students will be learned more deeply within a learning community.

2) We believe that the work of community service and advocacy for social justice is challenging and hard, and that students can more readily sustain their commitments to this work if they share in mutual support with other students making similar commitments.

3) We believe that the work of community service and advocacy for social justice will continue to be challenging and hard after students complete the program and move on through their lives, and that they will be better equipped to sustain this work if they have the skills to build supportive networks of like-minded people wherever they are.

Asked to reflect on their experience of the Program as they prepare to graduate from it, students most frequently point to the importance of their experience of community with other students, staff and faculty.