Course makes a public case

PUBLISHED by The Daily Free Press

Making a difference in the world can seem like a huge feat for college students, but with the help of a School of Education course, students can learn to convert their ideas into working public policy, a Boston University professor says.


Project Citizen - first offered at BU in spring 2007 - is one of four "Projects in Civic Engagement" courses developed by SED faculty to attract undergraduates who have an interest in teaching, said Charles White, the project's associate director.

According to the course description on the Student Link, Project Citizen, which will be offered again in the spring, allows students to "apply a model of citizen action" and analyze a public policy of their choosing.

"University students are very involved in community service," White said, "but they tend not to view service as a way to engage in government. Real change doesn't happen until people are involved with public policy."

Although a part of the two-credit class focuses on how aspiring teachers can better prepare their future students to become active citizens, White said the course is not exclusively for SED students.

"[Project Citizen is] an international project that began in middle schools and is going into high schools about how to monitor and influence public policy makers," White said. "We were thinking for a long time it would be great for that project to appear at the university level."

SED interim dean Charles Glenn said he is working with other BU schools to reach out to students across academic disciplines, saying public policy is a "matter of concern for everyone."

"Education is crucial to every political effort," Glenn said. "It shapes minds and hearts of future citizens, and it's essential to deal with education appropriately."

The only other Project Citizen course at the university level in the country is taught by San Jose State University political science professor Larry Gerston, who was the first college professor to incorporate the techniques in his class.

Gerston said he met White when he was promoting Project Citizen for the Center for Civic Education in California, which originally developed the program in middle and high schools.

"[Students] found it very exhilarating and worthwhile," Gerston said. "[The class] improved their knowledge of the policy making process and made them educated as citizens."

The Project Citizen class last year chose a public policy issue to research and then developed a plan of action to persuade decision makers. At the end of the course, students presented their policy to a mock panel of real politicians and teachers.

College of Arts and Sciences senior Kelly Connolly, who took the class last year, said she researched the BU Guest Policy. Although her project did not have any direct bearing on BU's policies, she said the project taught her valuable lessons.

"I found it to be a really engaging way to understand how our law system works and how people can actually become involved," Connolly said. "[I found that] if people are willing to take the initiative, they can have an impact on public policies that have an effect on their everyday lives."