ADP and The Democracy Commitment mentioned in ACPA Summer Newsletter “The Pipeline”

By Jen Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project

The American Democracy Project and our new sister community college civic engagement initiative The Democracy Commitment were recently included in ACPA’s Commission on Student Development in the Two-Year College’s Summer 2011 newsletter “The Pipeline.”

ACPA: College Student Educators International’s Commission for Student Development in the Two-Year College is “is directly concerned with issues relevant to student development programs at two-year institutions.”

In her “From the Chair” introduction, Dr. Lisa Kelsay, the current chair of the Commission for Student Development in the Two-Year College, wrote, “Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in the American Democracy Project National Meeting and The Democracy Commitment planning meeting in Orlando, FL. The American Democracy Project began in 2003 as an initiative of the 4-year colleges and it has grown extensively since day one. The goal according to the ADP is to “produce graduates who are committed to being active, involved citizens in their communities.” The Democracy Commitment was created to focus on democracy at the 2-year college level. The excitement level by faculty, staff, and students from the 2- and 4-year colleges in attendance was incredible. Keynote speakers such as Erica Williams (Civic Engagement Laboratory) and Andrew Rosenthal (New York Times) brought such a depth to the information shared. Through conversations with attendees and at various workshops, I learned about many projects and programs that we could implement on our campus through collaboration between academic and student affairs. I believe that participating in this initiative would be good for all 2-year colleges. To learn more about this program and how your college can become a part of this new initiative, go to http://www.deanza.edu/communityengagement/democracycommitment/.”

The newsletter also includes a portion of Cecilia Orphan’s earlier interview with The Democracy Commitment co-founder Dr. Bernie Ronan from this blog’s March 2011 post, “The Democracy Commitment: Community Colleges in the Mix.”

You can view the Summer 2011 edition of “The Pipeline” electronic newsletter here.

For more information about ACPA’s Commission for Student Development in the Two-Year College, go here.