2023 Highlights

Project Pericles is ending 2023 on a high note. We invite you to read about exciting updates to our programs that empower faculty, students, administrators, and their communities to advance democratic and civic engagement. 

Faculty and Community Partner Collaboration Creating Impactful Curricula 
Through the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ program, faculty create a new innovative course in collaboration with a community partner to address grand challenges. Students apply academic content to solve real-world challenges, and campuses develop meaningful partnerships with their local community.  Over recent years, we have supported more than 100 PFLs across all disciplines. This faculty leadership program is changing the lives of hundreds of faculty, students, campuses, and community members. We thank the Mellon Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation for supporting recent rounds of PFLS.

Sarah DiPasquale, a Mellon Periclean Faculty Leader at Skidmore College shares: “My PFL course, Dancing Toward Success: Arts Education for Public Schools is a community-based learning course that investigates the issues surrounding arts education access, funding, and the relationship between arts and learning. Building on theory learned through readings, class discussion, and guest speakers, students collaborate with a local underserved school district to design and implement a dance education residency for 3rd-5th graders. I can confidently say that the PFL program has been instrumental in shaping the direction of my academic career. Having the support from Project Pericles has created a snowball effect, allowing me to integrate civic engagement and community programming into almost all of my courses. I’m delighted the course will again be offered in Fall 2024 in our general education curriculum.”​

Pictured above: Students in Sarah DiPasquale, Mellon PFL at Skidmore, teach dance to local, undersourced elementary students.

Periclean Fellowship Program for Campuses Across the Nation 
In 2023 as part of a new fellowship program, we awarded 20 $1,000 mini-grants to faculty members teaching Spring 2023, Fall 2023, and Spring 2024 courses that incorporate deliberative dialogue, voter education, and address voter suppression in humanities courses. We funded faculty from 17 different institutions in 9 states. As with our past grant opportunities, many faculty continue to re-apply and continue working with us. We are so pleased to support many campuses in addition to our Periclean consortium. We are continuing with our outreach strategy to engage even more campuses, faculty, and staff  in the coming years. 

“The program provided valuable insights and strategies for integrating civic engagement and community-based learning into the college experience. Through discussions, resources, and mentorship, I learned effective ways to connect course material to real-world issues, encourage student involvement in local communities, and foster a sense of civic responsibility among students.” - Aaron Lawler, Associate Professor of Humanities, Waubonsee Community College (IL) and Spring 2023 Fellow

​This new fellowship is part of Curricula for Social Change: Empowering College Faculty, Students, and Communities for Voter Engagement, supported by a $900,000 Mellon Foundation grant we received in 2022. The three-year initiative involves four program components: 1) an expanded Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ in the Humanities 2) a Voter Engagement Program for 75 faculty across the United States 3) a program for 75 faculty to address voter suppression and challenges to voting rights and 4) an expansion and redesign of our online curricular resources. This initiative supports the integration of voter education and social justice issues into the curriculum through deliberative dialogues and community-initiated projects, thus empowering students with the skills necessary to build a more just society.

Students Advocates Make Statewide Change through Debating for Democracy (D4D) 
With Project Pericles support, students are making a difference with issues they care about. Harry Hou ('25) and Danika Grieser ('26) at Swarthmore College in PA were a winning team in our 2023 Letter to an Elected Official Competition. They wrote and submitted, "A Letter Urging the Repeal of Closed Primaries" to Jared Solomon (D-PA) and won $500 to advocate for election policy change.  The Swarthmore team brought 50 students from across PA to a rally in Harrisburg they organized with other students. Representative Jared Solomon, Marla Brown, Scott Conklin, and Christopher Rabb all spoke. Following the rally, Representative Solomon invited the group to the House Floor as his guests where they were recognized by Speaker McClinton for their work. ​

The State Government committee ultimately voted in favor of the two bills. Jennifer Magee, Program Director at Swarthmore College shared, “I'm grateful to Pericles for providing this platform for students to engage.” Pictured above: Harry Hou (Swarthmore College, ‘25) speaking at the at the Pennsylvania State House.