The meetings dove deep into the state of democracy in America and allowed me to reflect on what’s broken in our country and what we need to do to fix it. Throughout the three collaboratory convenings, I found myself in rooms with people I never would have encountered, having conversations that challenged my preconceived notions of civic power and citizenship.Īt the time I had no idea that many of these people would later become my greatest friends and mentors or that I would run into them at almost any political gathering. In the next year I would be traveling to meetings in Seattle, Detroit, and Chicago. They had decided to include young people in the meetings. These meetings serve as a common platform and project incubator for catalytic leaders in tech, government, education, and media.
I learned that collaboratory was a mash-up of the words, “collaborative” and “laboratory,” suggesting that it’s a space for collaboration and experimentation.
The application explained that CU was putting together a group of highly motivated high school sophomores and juniors from across the country to serve as youth participants in their quarterly “Civic Collaboratory” meetings. I hoped that participating in this new program could further my work with Bridge the Divide. By providing an online discussion platform, organizing global conferences, and facilitating roundtable discussions, we stimulate conversation between young people across party lines in a productive and respectful manner. When I was in high school I co-founded an organization called Bridge the Divide with the goal of helping my generation to be less politically polarized. Civic innovation? A political incubator? Sure I had heard these words, but never together in a single phrase. "I didn’t find out about the inaugural Citizen University (CU) Youth Collaboratory until hours before the application was due, but something told me that I’d be missing out on something big if I didn’t throw my hat into the ring. Clara Nevins, from the very first cohort shares her story. 24 highly-motivated students from around the country join Citizen University and travel to cities around the nation, meeting leading civic innovators, sharpening their literacy in citizen power and producing their own independent projects in their communities for one year.
One of their programs, the Youth Collaboratory empowers and connects a rising generation of civic leaders and doers. They envision a great civic revival across our nation - their dream is a country in which Americans are steeped in a sense of civic character, educated in the tools of civic power, and are problem-solving contributors in a self-governing community. Citizen University is building a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the country.
0 kommentar(er)
