Lone Star College-Kingwood Center for Civic Engagement

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman released the recommendations of the Truman Commission on the Role of Higher Education in Democracy, stating “higher education shall take its proper place in our national effort to strengthen democracy at home”. The fundamental recommendation of the commission was to establish a network of public Community Colleges to provide higher education to "all youth who can profit from such education". This crucial relationship between Community Colleges and the health of our democracy has been largely forgotten and ignored. Community Colleges were born as “Democracy Colleges” with a twofold purpose. They were designed, first, to provide the opportunities of higher education to those from whom it had traditionally been withheld and second, to increase the civic education of the population, which has been historically seen as essential to functioning democracy. The Lone Star College-Kingwood Center for Civic Engagement is answering that clarion call with a series of programs and initiatives to put Democracy into action and become a national leader in developing the civic mission of community colleges. The Center for Civic Engagement works to promote and foster a whole spectrum of civic skills that will not only help students participate in our democracy but also deepen and broaden the job skills of our students.

We work in partnership with the following national organizations.
The Democracy Commitment - The Democracy Commitment (TDC) is a national initiative providing a platform for the development and expansion of community college programs, projects and curricula aiming at engaging students in civic learning and democratic practice across the country.
The American Commonwealth Partnership - The American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP) is an alliance of community colleges, colleges and universities, P-12 schools and others dedicated to building “democracy colleges” throughout higher education.

The following are the initiatives of the center for Civic Engagement
• Public Achievement – Public Achievement is a youth civic engagement initiative focused on the most basic concepts of citizenship, democracy and public work. Public Achievement draws on the talents and desires of ordinary people to build a better world and to create a different kind of politics.
• Engage the Election – LSC-Kingwood hosts candidate forums where you can meet candidates running for office and hosts voter registration drives which attempts to get students signed up to vote and provides training to deputize students as voter registrars.
• Deliberative Dialogues – Deliberative Dialogues provide a way for community members of diverse views and experiences to seek a shared understanding of a problem and to search for common ground for action. These dialogues are led by trained faculty, staff, and student moderators who follow a discussion guide that frames the issue.
• Alternative Spring Break – Alternative Spring Break provides students with the opportunities to work on service oriented projects with community based organizations over the course of their spring break.
• National Model United Nations – Model U.N. provides a diverse group of informed college/university students and faculty from all over the world a forum for addressing global concerns in a real world context. More than 5,000 college/university delegates, half from outside the United States, come to New York City each spring to discuss current global issues on twenty selected committees.
• Service Learning – Service Learning is a strategy for linking the classroom, community, and civic engagement through a teaching method which combines community service with academic instruction as it focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility.
• Citizen Alum – Citizen Alum is an effort to change the framework of alumni relations, partnering with alumni as “do-ers.”
• Internships – Each year LSC-Kingwood students may choose to do internships in the offices of local elected officials such as the Office of the Mayor, State Representative, County Commissioner, or U.S. Representative. These experiences provide excellent opportunities for developing job skills and connections.