Connecting Coursework and Civic Engagement
Students at Princeton can forge powerful connections between real-world action and academic learning. Some pursue action in areas they have studied in courses. Some take courses that dig deeper into issues they have encountered in civic engagement experiences. Some find or create experiences that integrate academic learning and engaged action. Interested students should contact the Pace Center to discuss opportunities. Following are a few examples of how the connections can work.
- Many students are motivated to take action by things they learn in class. Through Breakout Princeton, spring 2009 participants explored community organizing in Chicago, and religion and society in Salt Lake City, to cite just two examples. Through Breakout, students propose and design break trip programs, giving them a platform to get an in-depth, on-the-ground experience.
- The Community-Based Learning Initiative (CBLI) sponsors courses that give students the opportunity to perform research to answer pressing questions for community partners. In Social Change and the City, students explore such questions as the educational impacts of concentrated poverty in New Jersey and opportunities for urban agricultural ventures in empty factories and warehouses in Trenton.
- The varied volunteer opportunities available to Princeton students give them the chance to connect hands-on experience with their courses. For example, students who took “Law, Politics, and Violence” volunteered to tutor incarcerated younbg men who were pursuing the GED. Students volunteering with organizations fighting homelessness or hunger in Mercer County might register for “The Sociology of Poverty” in order to develop a broader understanding of the context for their work, and so forth.
