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Going from “Why Do I Have To?” to “Wow, It Does Matter!”

Civic Engagement LEAD Initiative
January 13, 2017 Kenneth Bonk Radford University

Growing students into engaged citizens through democratic participation in their communities

From my own childhood growing up in a low-income ethnic background on the receiving end of volunteerism, I was also taught to never hesitate to help anyone outside of our family, be it neighbors, friends, church members, victims of disasters, etc. (No matter how much my family struggled week to week). This continued through my adult life, where I have participated in a wide variety of food, clothing, fund drives, giving blood, building and repairing homes, picking trash, cooking and serving meals, and even positively protesting for action to better a situation for those in need. My real life personal experiences helped me understand how civic learning and democratic engagement enhances a person's growth as an individual, as a participant within a group and as a member of a community.

Throughout my 36 years in higher education, I have been blessed that one of my career responsibilities has been to introduce and educate students with hands-on-experiences in contributing to positive change within various communities and/or through different causes (be it locally, regionally, nationally and internationally).

One observation I witnessed in these years is that college students are both the most eager to be of service to the community and also the least interested in anything that smacks of charity work.  There are those who are naysayers who before, during, and after any engagement event saw no benefit whatsoever in his/her efforts and students who were in it solely for the recognition, grade, making job connections, etc. Yet there were also those students so fervent and dedicated to the idea of being of service they served as an inspiration to myself and those around them.

I am gratified to say the negative students were few and far and I still struggle that I was unable to help them dig deeper into their moral being to help them connect the benefit to both them and those that are recipients of the engagement.  As for the enthusiastic students, I witnessed that the vast majority grew in respect and appreciation of others, responsibility towards others, citizenship, self-worth, dignity, and empathy.

So as I continue into the ‘seasoned’ years of my career path, I can only look for other ways (through research, dialogue, and ‘hands on’ experiences) to convey to all students the role civic engagement plays in strengthening whatever community we are involved with while making us better caring individuals.

I see my role as continuing to help those students new to or continuing in democratic engagement to recognize that when recipients of the engagement know someone cares about them and volunteer to help them, it is powerful beyond words. 

I know…

Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) means promoting the education of students for engaged citizenship through democratic participation in their communities, respect and appreciation of diversity, applied learning and social responsibility.