Educating Globally Competent Citizens: Update on the 7 Revolutions Initiative

By Cecilia M. Orphan, National Manager, American Democracy Project

People in higher education often talk about the importance of developing global competence in undergraduate education. In fact, most four-year public institutions declare the goal of exposing their students to international education within university framing documents such as their strategic plans and mission statements. But there is less coherence about what this actually means. The 7 Revolutions initiative was created as a way to experiment with practical strategies for educating globally competent citizens.

Tonight kicks off the start of a three-day meeting with the 7 Revolutions Scholars, a group of academic leaders who have done groundbreaking work in creating a set of best practices for preparing undergraduate students as global citizens. During this meeting, the Scholars will plan for the next steps in the initiative, including hosting future institutes and expanding the core working group to include additional AASCU campuses. The Scholars lead the national 7 Revolutions Initiative, which launched in 2006 in partnership with ADP, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a globally-recognized think tank, and The New York Times. The 7 Revolutions explores the seven major global trends that will shape the world by 2025. These seven trends are:

1. population;
2. resource management and environmental stewardship;
3. technological innovation;
4. the development and dissemination of information and knowledge;
5. economic integration;
6. conflict; and
7. governance.

Currently, 10 ADP campuses are involved in the 7 Revolutions initiative, and 55 AASCU institutions have incorporated the 7 Revolutions content and pedagogical materials into their undergraduate programs. To date, the initiative has hosted four institutes and produced a guide for incorporating the 7 Revolutions into course curriculum and on-campus programming entitled, Educating Globally Competent Citizens: A Tool Kit for Teaching Seven Revolutions. The tool kit is available for sale on this website.

In addition to producing the tool kit and the institutes, the 7 Revolutions Scholars have also been working diligently to educate their own students as globally competent citizens. What follows is a sampling of their inspiring work.

Fort Hays State University

Fort Hays State has created a learning community that involves a cohort of 28 incoming freshmen. This semester, the freshmen are taking four courses together and 7 Revolutions is one of these courses. The course is called, “Sustainability and the Future: The 7 Revolutions.” In the spring, this group of students will visit CSIS in Washington, DC and meet with some of the leading experts employed by the think tank. In addition to the learning community, Fort Hays State is experimenting with a variety of other strategies for incorporating the 7 Revolutions content into campus programming.

Southeast Missouri State University

For the past four years, Southeast Missouri State has brought a group of junior seminar students to Washington, DC, for a special three-day program at CSIS. During this program, the students explore each of the Revolutions in more detail. In addition to this course, Southeast Missouri State is incorporating 7 Revolutions content into a freshman-level “introduction to college” course. This means that the majority of freshmen students will be exposed to 7 Revolutions content.

Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw created a “Tomorrow’s World Today” course and is currently offering 13 sections of this course. In addition, three sections of this course will be offered in the spring. This course is a first-year seminar that uses the 7 Revolutions framework and serves to anchor a program designed to prepare globally competent leaders. The program consists of 40 honors students enrolled in one of two first-semester learning communities as President’s Emerging Global Scholars (PEGS).  Participating students are admitted to the PEGS program based on their high school GPA; SAT/ACT scores, and a personal interview to assess leadership potential. The two learning communities are anchored by a common section of the “Tomorrow’s World Today” first-year seminar course. One group of 20 students with various interests (other than STEM fields) focuses on the 7 Revolutions and Brazil. This group just completed a 10 day trip to Brazil which was embedded in their learning community and occurred from Oct 16-26. A second group of 20 students with an interest in STEM disciplines are in the same first-year seminar section but have a different set of companion courses in their learning community. This group focuses on the 7 Revolutions as they apply to Mexico and the students will travel to Guadalajara, Mexico in the spring. During these travel experiences, the students will learn first-hand how the 7 Revolutions relate to Brazil and Mexico respectively.

California State University, Fresno

CSU Fresno created a first-year experience course for 100 at-risk students. A cohort of these students will take the same classes with the same professors throughout the entire year. The goal is to have the common theme of 7 Revolutions taught in all general education courses that these students take. Many of the CSU Fresno faculty are using the Global Village activity with students as a way to explore the 7 Revolutions. Finally, Martin Shapiro, the 7 Revolutions Scholar from CSU Fresno, is working with a committee on undergraduate education to emphasize Global Citizenship within general education requirements, borrowing lessons learned from the first-year experience course described above.

University of Minnesota Duluth

Dennis Falk, one of the 7 Revolutions Scholars at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is teaching four courses on global issues. One course is being taught online to 50 students.  Bill Payne, the other 7 Revolutions Scholar at UM Duluth, is teaching 7 Revolutions as a theatrical framework in theater courses. Students are learning about global citizenship while practicing the arts of directing and acting.

Western Kentucky University (WKU)

The 7 Revolutions are studied by students and faculty in several departments at WKU. Currently, there are 7 Revolutions courses offered in Interdisciplinary Studies, Political Science, and Geography.  In addition, there are wider initiatives to “internationalize” the curriculum and the campus as whole, and the 7 Revolutions framework is being employed to help guide that conversation. The 7 Revolutions framework is also being used to develop a four credit hour course for students in the Honors College. This sophomore-level course will serve as one of the cornerstones of a revised general education curriculum that will be required of all students in the college. This team-taught course will analyze a host of developments transforming the world today and emphasize a global perspective on the opportunities and challenges that these trends may produce over the next several decades. Nathan Phelps is developing the course and oversees the 7 Revolutions Program while teaching in the Honors College at WKU.

Question: How is your university working to educate globally competent citizens?

President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll Deadline Dec. 16

By Cecilia M. Orphan, National Manager, American Democracy Project

Last year, 18 American Democracy Project campuses were listed in the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. I’m hoping many more campuses will be listed in this year’s Honor Roll. ADP campuses are leaders in the movement to prepare informed, engaged citizens for our democracy. The Honor Roll is one way for ADP campuses to be recognized for their hard work. To apply for the Honor Roll, please visit this website.

The President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, launched in 2006, annually recognizes institutions of higher education for their commitment to and achievement in community service. The President’s Honor Roll increases the public’s awareness of the contributions that colleges and their students make to local communities and the nation as a whole. President Obama has pledged to make service a central cause of his administration and wishes to commemorate the significant role that higher institutions, their students, staff, and faculty play in helping to solve pressing social problems in the nation’s communities.

The Corporation for National and Community Service opened registration on September 20, 2010 for the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The final deadline for 2010 application submission is December 16, 2010. For more information visit the Honor Roll’s registration site.

Please remember, the application deadline is December 16, 2010.

 

Democracy Can Make You Cry

By Jocelyn Payne, Northeastern State University

The voices of democracy can seem shrill and strident. From pundits to political candidates, experts to officeholders, regardless of our blueness or redness, too often we hear unflattering views of our political worldview. Nonetheless, Northeastern State University offered our students an opportunity to express ideas about democracy during Constitution Week on the Broken Arrow campus.

Democracy Walls were butcher-paper covered tables placed in each building around campus that allowed people to express their ideas about democracy. Multi-colored crayons were scattered on each table, next to signs which included a brief explanation of the project, and the question to be answered: What is Democracy? Our sole restriction also was displayed: Free speech is respectful speech – No profanity please. We also placed voter registration forms on each table, along with flyers about a university-wide creative expression contest also focused on the democracy question  Members of our team checked the tables periodically each day, and replaced the butcher-paper if we discovered profanity or if one of the walls was covered with comments.

Late in the evening of the first full day the walls were in place, I was pleased to find intellectual and heartfelt comments sans profanity. My heart was nearly full when I entered the last building and saw the most expressive table of all. Some comments I saw were:

• “I can write anything on this table and it matters what I say.”
• “The freedom to be a Republican social worker.”
• “Democracy is my voice being heard. My thoughts validated. An opportunity to change the status quo.”

As I read the comments – rich and textured, rigid and flexible, earnest and silly, focused and diffuse, defining and questioning, serious and funny – all the blue and red together, the memory of shrill and strident voices faded. There I was, crying at the Democracy Wall with the varied wisdom and diverse thinking of our students echoing softly in my mind. I felt truly privileged to know those are the voices of scholars who surround me every day.

Our Constitution Week included dozens of comments, multiple paper changes, limited violations of the guideline and positive assessment by all involved. Our team is ready to embark on our next adventure: A campus-wide POV documentary screening through which we hope to bring all the voices into dialogue.

To read more about this project, please visit this website.

Question:

Have you created a Democracy Plaza or Democracy Wall on your campus? If so, how did the students respond? What was the discussion like?

Super Saturday at Kennesaw State University

By Carlton Usher, Kennesaw State University

Super Saturday is the Atlanta Urban League Young Professional’s (AULYP) annual voter education series that emphasizes voting in national, state and local elections, as well as working with elected officials to enact change. Kennesaw State University’s American Democracy Project has been and remains a central partner since 2006.  In 2006, Dr. Carlton Usher accompanied eight students affiliated with the African American Male Initiatives at Kennesaw State University (KSUAAMI) to the first event held at D.M. Terrell High School in Atlanta.

After the successful event at Terrell High School, Dr. Usher met with several community organizers to explore the possibility of organizing another event with Kennesaw State University as a major participant. Consequently, with the support of Dr. Ralph Rascati, Dean of the University College, and other members of the American Democracy Project team, Dr. Usher initiated a strong and lasting partnership with AULYP. The AULYP consists of bright and focused young leaders with strong reputations in governance, community development, and entrepreneurship. We remain extremely proud go these future leaders.

Super Saturday 2008 featured opening remarks by Beverly Hall, the superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, a keynote by Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort whose tireless work includes countering mortgage and lending redlining and gentrification in the downtown Atlanta neighborhoods.  The mayoral panel moderated by WSBTV 2 reporter Tom Jones included the then

Super Saturday 2008: Candidate now Mayor Elect Kasim Reed, Dr. Carlton Usher and Kennesaw State University Students

Candidate and current mayor Kasim Reed, Atlanta City Council members Mary Norwood and Caesar Mitchell, and Jessie Spikes senior partner at McKenna Long and Aldridge

 

Super Saturday 2009 featured candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed, Jessie Spikes and Glenn Thomas. Opening remarks were delivered by Atlanta Deputy Fire Chief Nishiyama Willis.

Super Saturday 2009: mayoral candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed, Lisa Borders, Jessie Spikes and Glenn Thomas, Dr. Carlton Usher, Sherwin Murray.

 

With the City Council President Lisa Borders conceding in a very close race, and the new mayor Kasim Reed in place, we focused our Super Saturday 2010 on the gubernatorial primary. Unlike the past events planned for September, this day of civic engagement was slated for considering both major parties primaries for July 20, 2010.  A crowd of approximately 100 people heard Democrats DuBose Porter, David Poythress, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, and Bill Bolton, as well as representatives of Democrat Carl Camon and Republican John Oxendine. The candidates discussed the challenges they believe the next governor should address. Most

Super Saturday 2010: Georgia Gubernatorial Debates, Grady High School Atlanta, Georgia

talked about the state of the economy, local issues such as transportation, water, and public safety. After a few opening remarks from several local political strategists and lawmakers, the audience experienced an awesome and heartfelt keynote address by labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond (he is currently running for the senate against incumbent John Isakson).  CBS news anchor Danielle Knox moderated the event and several news outlets interviewed the candidates before and after the debates. The coverage was extensive and Kennesaw and the American Democracy Project’s work in conjunction the AULYP remains one of the hallmark events leading up to the November election.

Georgia Gubernatorial candidates take questions from reporters.

Georgia Gubernatorial candidates take questions from reporters.

Georgia Gubernatorial candidates take questions from reporters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can Gaming Save the World? Project Evoke Thinks So

Project Evoke is an online game developed by by the World Bank,  infoDEV and Jane McGonigal  (the creative director). The game is a new and exciting way to help young people practice problem-solving skills for real-world problems.

“It goes beyond the realms of any game that merely entertains using graphics and active player participation, because it incorporates aspects that one would not usually associate with gaming; social awareness and education. Described as a ‘ten week crash course to save the world,’ Evoke is a platform that encourages various young individuals from around the world to collectively create solutions to social challenges plaguing many continents, specifically Africa.” (Quote taken from this article.)

Please see below for more information and consider sharing this wonderful game with your students.

_______________________________________________________

EVOKE is a ten-week crash course in changing the world.

It is free to play and open to anyone, anywhere.

The goal of the social network game is to help empower young people all over the world, and especially young people in Africa, to come up with creative solutions to our most urgent social problems.

Players who successfully complete 10 game challenges will be able to claim their honors: Certified EVOKE Social Innovator – Class of 2010.

Top players will also earn online mentorships with experienced social innovators and business leaders from around the world,seed funding for new ventures, and travel scholarships to share their vision for the future at the EVOKE Summit in Washington DC. (Learn more about these rewards.)

EVOKE was developed by the World Bank Institute, the learning and knowledge arm of the World Bank Group, and directed by alternate reality game master Jane McGonigal.

EVOKE is for all ages; recommended age 13 and up.

LEARN HOW TO PLAY:
Learn the five secrets of the EVOKE Network.
Plus: Find out how to play the game from a mobile phone.

Visit the Project Evoke website today and get in the game!

Democracy Plaza: A Signature Practice of Civic Engagement

By Cecilia M. Orphan, National Manager, American Democracy Project

It started with a simple idea.

What if there was an open space on campus for anyone could “talk democracy?” What if this space was available for student groups, professors, staff and others to reserve and use as fodder for deep and sometimes difficult discussions about our society? And, what if faculty members could use this space to inspire students to get engaged and be informed? The faculty, staff, and students at Indiana University, Purdue University Indianapolis sought to make this idea a reality with Democracy Plaza.

 

Democracy Plaza at IUPUI

 

Created by a group of students, faculty members and staff in the summer of 2004, the Democracy Plaza at IUPUI provides the campus community with an “an opportunity to express, speak, and hear diverging thoughts surrounding social, political, economic, and religious issues relevant to the campus, city, state, country, and world.” For the last six years, the Democracy Plaza has been available for the students, faculty members, and staff of IUPUI to voice their opinions about contentious issues such as gun rights, gay marriage, and abortion. The Democracy Plaza is a collection of chalk boards located centrally on campus. People are encouraged to contribute questions, answers, opinions and thoughts on these walls. As stated on its website, “the mission of DP is to support the development of well-informed and engaged students through critical thinking and civil discourse on political ideas and issues.”

We believe that the Democracy Plaza is a signature practice of civic engagement for the following reasons. It is non-hierarchical – anyone can engage in a conversation on these boards. It encourages the campus to engage in democratic discussions. And finally, it strives to raise student awareness of and engagement with important issues facing our society. Since its creation, the Democracy Plaza has received media attention for its success in bringing people to have an ongoing discussion, and has inspired other campuses to adopt the Democracy Plaza model.

 

Democracy Plaza at the ADP National Meeting, June, 2010

 

At the  American Democracy Project (ADP) National Meeting in Providence, RI, we invited the facilitators of the Democracy Plaza at IUPUI to collaborate with us on creating a Democracy Plaza for the meeting. We provided large boards and markers for people to use to discuss the Obama administration, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the contentious labor dispute at the hotel, among other issues.

The results were stunning.

Conference attendees contributed their thoughts and reactions to a series of questions we posed on the walls. The questions were created by the student leaders of the Democracy Plaza at IUPUI, and were thought provoking and at times controversial. During each break between workshop sessions, people milled around and engaged in spontaneous conversations with one another while contributing to the wall. In addition to the wonderful depth the Democracy Plaza brought to the normally unscheduled time at the conference, many of the conference attendees were inspired to create their own Democracy Plazas.

Fort Hays State University is experimenting with its own version of Democracy Plaza, named “Tiger Talkback.” Each Monday, a new question is posted on the board and the campus community has until Thursday to contribute their reactions to the question. Tiger Talkback also has an online dimension called “Wiffiti,” which allows commuter students to take part in the discussion.

The Democracy Plaza is Contagious

Other ADP schools are adopting the Democracy Plaza model as well. Northeastern State University, Middle Tennessee State University, and Indiana University South Bend included Democracy Plazas in their Constitution Day programming.

A Virtual Space for Democracy

As part of our eCitizenship initiative, IUPUI is now developing an eDemocracy Plaza that will be online. It will be a virtual companion to the physical Democracy Plaza. The University of Wisconsin-Stout also plans to experiment with a virtual Democracy Plaza.

To read more about the Democracy Plaza model, please visit this website and watch the brief video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iobIrLpCNVQ&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Are you considering creating your own Democracy Plaza? Please contact Anne H. Weiss, President of IUPUI’s Democracy Plaza, for more information.

Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives Promotes Cross-Cultural Understanding along U.S. – Mexico Border

By Stephen Schneider, The University of Texas-Pan American

They call it Río Bravo. We call it Rio Grande, the 1885-mile river that separates Mexico from the United States. It is a historic natural border, the site of fierce battles during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48.

Several major cities along the northern border of Mexico are tied closely by commerce and culture to border cities on the U.S. side. Tijuana and San Diego. Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. Nuevo Laredo and Laredo. Families and friendships bridge both sides of the river.

Today, however, the natural border of the river is supplanted by a border wall. Commerce and cultural exchange are being destroyed by warring cartels, gun running, and drug smuggling. Each new day seems to be greeted with some gruesome headline. This week, for example, the news is about the beheading of a Mexican investigator looking into the recent alleged murder of an American citizen, David Hartley, on Falcon Lake.

With the recent passage of the new anti-immigrant law in Arizona, the border has become the focal point of national debate. And the river is patrolled by increasing numbers of agents and helicopters in ways that it never has before.

When I moved in 2001 to McAllen, Texas, a short drive from the northern border city of Reynosa, Mexico, to teach English at the University of Texas-Pan American, the border was very different. The border wall had not yet been constructed. The activity of the Zeta and other drug gangs was quiescent compared to today.

You could cross with ease from the U.S. side to the Mexican side on one of the many pedestrian bridges built over the Rio Grande. In fact, my wife Reefka and I would often take our two boys to the small border town of Nuevo Progreso, about a 25-minute drive from our house. We would walk across the bridge from Progreso into Nuevo Progreso and shop for exquisite talavera pottery or colorful wood-carved alebrijes, and buy fresh garlic from street vendors.

We would listen to Mariachi music played in the streets and restaurants of Nuevo Progreso. And we were not alone. In the winter months you can see hundreds of tourists in Nuevo Progreso from places like Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, and, yes, Iowa. These “Winter Texans” flock to the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas to escape the snow and ice of the Midwest winters.

On these excursions Reefka would often photograph and sketch the people that we met in the streets of Nuevo Progreso: the garlic man wearing a rugby t-shirt and orange baseball cap, the six-year-old street handbag vendor, selling them each day to help feed her family. We would see very young children playing the accordion on the curb so tourists would toss coins into a cup. Back in her studio, Reefka would draw in charcoal and conté formal portraits of these people that we met.

Over the course of several years, I began to write poems about Reefka’s drawings. I was struck by the vibrancy of the border culture despite the economic hardships children and families face.

Steven and Reefka at Borderlines Book Launch

Together, our poems and her drawings created a marriage of art and poetry, figure and figure of speech, a space where two art forms embrace each other. This past spring a collection of 25 of Reefka’s drawings and 25 of my poems (in English and Spanish) were published as a book: Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives, a look at the diversity and dignity of the people of the border, our frontera.

Our book promotes cross-cultural understanding and intercultural relations, and this fall we have been invited to discuss the book at The Texas Book Festival in Austin and at the Miami Book Fair International. Many of the reviews of the book, which you can find at this website,  praise our work for putting a human face on the immigration debate.

Borderlines grew out of a traveling exhibit that we created of the twenty-five portraits and twenty-five poems, and we would be happy to travel the exhibit to your college or university, or give a reading or workshop based upon our book.

What does it mean to cross over a border? It means that you leave the familiarity of your own space to enter another culture, which opens the door to cross-cultural understanding. When that door is closed, no exchange of views and ideas can take place, no breaking of boundaries.

In the current climate of fear along the U.S.-Mexico border, where the headlines about drug-related murders dominate the news, it is very easy to lose sight of the real people who live and work there and aspire to raise their families, listen to music, and dance under the stars.

We invite you to come with us to explore this region, this people, this rich and varied culture in the borderlands where las Américas come together.

Campus Sustainability Webcast: Empowering a Low Carbon Movement at Your Campus: Strategies and Tools for Behavior Change, Community Engagement, and Large-Scale Transformation

Streaming Live!

Wednesday, October 20

1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Eastern

The cutting edge of carbon reduction in colleges and universities is behavior change and community engagement.

David Gershon, one of the world’s foremost experts on behavior change and community engagement will share proven strategies and tools from his three decades of research to help you engage staff, students, and community members in this live, streamed webcast.

Gershon is the author of eleven books, including the best-seller Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds, and Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World (winner of four book awards).

The program moderator is Andrew Revkin, renowned former environmental reporter for The New York Times, who has now joined the staff of Pace Academy (Pace University) for Applied Environmental Studies as Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding.

Additional program discussants from higher education will add to the dynamic discussion!

Discussion points include:

• Social change design principles and how to apply them to your own campus sustainability initiatives
• Utilizing synergy to accelerate social change
• How to take a social innovation to scale

Learn more and register today!

Take Part in a National Conversation about Economic Security

Laura Keir, New England Center for Civic Life

This year the National Issues Forums Institute is holding a nation-wide conversation on economic security. As we slowly recover from the worst recession in decades, it is a good time to ask, “How can we best take charge of the future so families can feel reasonably secure, parents can help their children prosper, and everyone can move toward a financially stable retirement?” We need your help with holding forums in your community!  If you would like to learn more about the project or order forum materials please visit this website.  Forums must be held before January 24, 2011 to be included in this project. The forum results will be communicated to policy makers at regional events in the early spring and in Washington, D.C. in May of 2011.

 

 

Assessing the Impacts of the ADP National Meeting

By Cecilia M. Orphan, American Democracy Project

We need your help.

Did you attend the ADP National Meeting in Providence, RI, in June 2010? If so, please take a moment to fill out this brief, online survey that will help us better understand the impacts of the conference.

Our goal is to assess the actual value of the conference to participants in a few key areas:

• We are interested in the immediate impact the event had while you were there. We want to know which one or two sessions/events provided you with some kind of information, or connections, that you felt were most important to your growth in supporting the ADP.
• We want to know what information and/or networks you have used after the conference was over that has/have helped you or improved your civic engagement work.
• We hope to capture the more complicated outcomes of your involvement and learn how you developed new approaches to civic engagement occurs.

Survey

This is a very short survey, I promise.  It will not take long to complete but your contribution to future American Democracy Project national conferences will be long-lasting. Click here to fill out this brief survey.

Robert Shumer, a Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Minnesota, created the survey and will be analyzing the results of the survey. We will share the results and use your feedback for future programming.

Thank you in advance for considering this request.