Project Pericles Welcomes nearly 50 New Civic Engagement Mini-Grant Recipients!

Project Pericles is thrilled to announce we have awarded 49 new Civic Engagement Mini-Grant to faculty and staff who are empowering students to engage with public issues in inclusive and collaborative ways, fostering deeper civic participation. Grants are supporting innovative civic projects across 21 states and at 46 institutions including Pericleans, private liberal arts colleges, public universities, minority serving institutions, and community colleges.
From using birdwatching to spark conversations around feminism and immigration, to exploring voting rights through the lens of the food business at a culinary institute, each Fellow is implementing a unique innovative project to help students gain critical skills for life-long civic leadership, while drawing upon and contributing to our Civic Engagement Resources.

With support from the Mellon Foundation and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation, each recipient receives a $1,000 grant to develop civic engagement-focused assignments, activities, and/or projects. Their work will contribute to Project Pericles’ Civic Engagement Resource Database to help ensure their innovative strategies inspire other faculty and staff at campuses across the country.
The fellowship has three tracks that each reflects a commitment to fostering informed, active, and critical thinkers who will shape the future of our society. 
Our Deliberative Dialogue track is supporting 20 Fellows who are facilitating dialogues around pressing civic issues, grounded in the principles of humanistic inquiry and drawing upon Periclean Deliberative Dialogue Modules. Through these discussions, students are invited to engage with academic content in a way that ties it directly to real-world issues while strengthening skills to connect across differences. This track provides an opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to develop the tools they need to engage in meaningful civil discourse.
An example from a recent grantee is Alma Khasawnih from The College of New Jersey. She is teaching Ecofeminism. Her course will use birding to engage students in discussions on the politics of environmental crises, food insecurity, migration/immigration, and the role of citizen activism in addressing these issues. 
In our new New Beyond Media Literacy: Enhancing Information Ecosystems to Bridge Divides track, 17 Fellows are tackling an increasingly complex media landscape in an age of misinformation, echo chambers, and rapidly shifting narratives. These Fellows are developing assignments and activities that challenge students to critically analyze the information systems they engage with. The projects encourage students to analyze media from multiple viewpoints, identify bias, and use fact-based information to engage in constructive and thoughtful dialogue. This track’s goal is to prepare students to navigate the complexities of today’s media world, empowering them to be discerning consumers of information and effective communicators in their communities.

Sohana Nasrin, a new fellow in this track from University of Tampa in Florida, is teaching the course Hurricanes & Histories. In this course students will explore the media coverage of hurricanes and conduct intergenerational interviews to examine climate change’s local impact. This interdisciplinary project bridges journalism, environmental studies, and civic dialogue. 
In the Voting Rights Expansion track, 12 Fellows are focusing their efforts on expanding voter engagement and addressing the barriers that prevent equal participation in democracy. By incorporating the Periclean  Voter Activation Modules into their courses, events, or programs, these Fellows guide students through the history of voting rights and current challenges to voter participation. This track emphasizes practical, actionable strategies to strengthen democracy, ensuring that students not only understand the history and importance of voting rights but also feel equipped to take meaningful steps to safeguard and expand them.
As part of this track, Mark Campbell II from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, will draw upon Periclean resources, including the Voter Suppression module to discuss the importance of voting through a lens of food, food business, and hospitality. 
Congratulations to our new fellows! We are honored to support their critical work at the intersection of education, democracy, and civic engagement and empowering students to develop the skills and knowledge to be life-long engaged citizens. Stay tuned for more updates on their exciting projects and impact.