Citizenship in Action course expands class conversations beyond campus
Above: Students engaged in dialogue with community members at the event with Braver Angels.
This winter, the Haas Center collaborated with two COLLEGE lecturers on the instruction of ETHICSOC 10: Citizenship in Action. This 1-2 unit experiential companion course for COLLEGE 102: Citizenship in the 21st Century was launched last year to extend COLLEGE 102 class conversations beyond the classroom and to bring students from different sections together for shared experiences. Enrollment went from 14 students last year (the pilot) to 27 students this year.
Citizenship in Action included four structured field experiences aligned to the themes of COLLEGE 102: civil dialogue, immigration, collective action, and inequality. Each field experience was preceded by a classroom orientation session followed by a reflection session.
In the first field experience, students built skills for challenging conversations and explored the topic of immigration with Bay Area residents. Community members were invited to Stanford’s campus for an event on civil discourse in collaboration with Braver Angels, an organization that hosts events and programs to build understanding among people of opposing political beliefs.
For their second field experience, students assisted adult Spanish speakers who were preparing for the U.S. Citizenship exam. Four groups traveled up to San Francisco to volunteer with Centro Latino, a full-service community center that provides essential services to elderly members of the Latinx community. A fifth group volunteered in Redwood City at the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, which provides immigration legal services, education, and civic engagement opportunities.
On their next field trip, the class sought to understand how diverse communities address collective action problems. Students saw local government in action, talking with city council members about local governance and democratic decision-making and attending city council meetings in Redwood City, San Jose, and Menlo Park.
On their last field trip, students explored how communities address rising inequalities, especially for vulnerable groups. They served lunch and learned about the work of the LifeMoves Opportunity Services Center, which provides emergency shelter, food, and case management services for adult men and women in Palo Alto.
Citizenship in Action continues to motivate a sense of civic responsibility in students. In her final course reflection, Caroline Zhang, ‘29, wrote, “I’ve gone from seeing citizenship as a legal status to seeing it as something practiced daily through civic relationships, participation, and responsibility to others. I hope to demonstrate my citizenship by volunteering, participating in discussions, helping others, and engaging with local institutions.”
