As a freshman interested in international law, Emily Danzinger was inspired by Civic Synergy, a national student engagement program. “I have shifted my career goals,” said Danzinger, now a junior and the student relations director at the George P. Hanley Democracy Center in the College of Arts and Sciences. “I want to contribute, even in a small way, to mitigating the fractures we see in American democracy.”
Today, that spirit of civic involvement is growing throughout the College, with faculty and students involved in high-impact courses, research, and initiatives supporting social justice, community activism, volunteer service, and leadership development. Students can also participate in more than 40 service-based University of Miami student organizations and volunteer service projects.
“Civic engagement is part of our mission,” said Dean Leonidas Bachas. “We want our graduates to be leaders in their communities as well as their professions.”
Building bridges
Since opening last spring, the George P. Hanley Democracy Center has hosted discussions with prominent political figures and organized a variety of civic engagement programs for students, faculty, and the community. For instance, former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who served on the bipartisan committee to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack, spoke on campus last October.
“Many students sense that democracy is challenged at home and around the world,” said Gregory Koger, the center’s director and a professor of political science. “They want to understand why that’s happening and try to nudge societies back to free and open government. To do that, we need to encourage people from all backgrounds to listen to each other and promote the spirit of community.”
One of the Hanley Center’s bridge-building initiatives focuses on the Civic Synergy program, which aims to help students learn negotiation skills and find common ground on public policy. That goal captured Danzinger’s imagination. “As a Cuban-Jewish-American, I often found myself in heated discussions with people on different sides of social issues,” she said. “One of the things I have gained from the program is the ability to engage with others in a respectful way regardless of whether or not we agree on something.”
This passion for engagement led the University to select Danzinger as its 2024 nominee for the Newman Civic Fellowship, a program administered by the national organization Campus Compact that recognizes students who engage in collaborative action to create long-term social change.
When Civic Synergy was launched in 2021, it was an online program that brought students and facilitators together for six- to eight-week seminars to discuss public policy challenges. Danzinger joined and soon began running the organization’s online programs. In the Fall 2022 semester, she came to a talk by George Hanley, the center’s founder and benefactor, on the importance of bipartisan collaboration.
“I thought it was important to bring this approach to our campus, where we could have engaging in-person discussions,” Danzinger said. After receiving approval from Civic Synergy and the center, she led a Spring 2023 semester pilot series of discussions with 14 students on climate change. That was followed by a fall program on public safety, focusing on how communities should address school safety, gun laws, and other policing issues. A third on-site program started in February, with 10 students taking part in conversations about climate safety and economic viability.
Reflecting on the success of last year’s program, Danzinger said, “Every one of the participants expressed a better perception of the other political party after completing the program. This shows that we can overcome the bitter partisan narrative that seems to dominate today’s politics.”
A collaborative process
At the University of Miami, community engagement is a collaborative process that involves connecting faculty and students with grassroots organizations, policymakers, and civic leaders to promote positive social change, according to Robin Bachin, senior associate dean for undergraduate education, the founding director of the Office of Civic and Community Engagement (CCE), and the Charlton W. Tebeau Associate Professor of History.
“One of the goals of CCE is to help foster the next generation of civic leaders, locally, nationally, and globally,” Bachin said. “We show students the steps they can take to participate as partners in the community and bring their skills and knowledge to bear on our society’s most pressing problems.”
Robin Bachin, the Charlton W. Tebeau Associate Professor of History, fourth from left, and other participants at a 2022 panel discussion organized by the Office of Civic and Community Engagement and the Center for the Humanities
One example is the UM Civic Scholars Program, which offers opportunities to develop civic leadership skills through CCE and the William R. Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development. Students take four courses with a community-engaged learning component, participate in co-curricular service, and complete a capstone project.
Another is the Engaged Faculty Fellows Program, which brings together a small cohort of faculty members each year for a series of workshops and discussions about incorporating community-based learning into their courses. “We discuss the pedagogy of engagement, including how to partner with local organizations and how to help students connect the content they learn in the classroom with real-world problem-solving skills that have an impact in our community,” said Bachin.
In Bachin’s “Cities in American History” class, students work with community organizations on affordable housing and related issues, and they conduct oral history interviews with residents who have experienced housing instability. Those experiences can spark a lasting interest in social justice and community empowerment. For instance, Alec Chao, B.A. ’22, became involved in affordable housing issues as a history and international studies student. After graduation, he became a strategic planning and performance analyst at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Alec was able to translate his civic engagement experience as an undergraduate into a related career opportunity,” Bachin said.
Writing across prison walls
Writing studies can be a powerful tool for civic engagement. That’s the foundation for a letter-writing program that connects students at the University with incarcerated students participating in writing classes organized by the nonprofit Exchange for Change.
“Our goal is to build bridges of understanding by giving a voice to our students,” said Kimberly McGrath Moreira, a senior lecturer in the writing studies department. “We call it the partnership of the pen.”
This semester, the program has 14 on-campus students and nine inside students at the Everglades Re-Entry Center who exchange anonymous letters with each other based on topics selected by the faculty. For instance, the architectural designs of prisons around the world was a recent topic, and the writers shared photos and ideas from their research. “Both have aha moments,” said McGrath Moreira.
“It is important for students to engage with the community and be mindful not to exploit vulnerable populations,” said Claudia Hoffmann, a lecturer in the writing studies department, who has been facilitating the program with incarcerated students. “In this program, the inside students benefit just as much as those on our campus.”
McGrath Moreira said the students learn how to write for different audiences, and how to revise and edit their letters. “They go through a writing journey together that can generate deep thinking and thoughtful writing,” she added, noting that faculty read all the letters to ensure personal safety.
McGrath Moreira said the program has had a long-term impact on many students, including one who said, “When I become a business owner, I will not hesitate to hire someone who has been incarcerated.” She added that students talk to their families and friends about changing the narrative in our criminal justice system.
This opportunity to change the narrative is what motivated one inside student, who uses the pen name Teclas, to join the program. “I took this course for one reason: to convey to those who may have forgotten or even never considered that I, an incarcerated person, am just as much a human being as they are,” he said.
Fostering civic engagement
Matt Nelsen believes civic engagement is a two-step process: gaining knowledge and taking action in the community. “Most students understand the importance of local government, but don’t know how to participate,” said Nelsen, an assistant professor of political science. “So, we look at county government and school board meetings, collect data, and present that knowledge in a way that informs public policy in the Miami area. While out-of-town students may not stay here forever, they can take that knowledge with them wherever they go.”
In his new book, The Color of Civics: Civic Education for a Multiracial Democracy, Nelsen argues that traditional approaches to civic education are not living up to their promise for many students, particularly students of color from disadvantaged communities. In his conversations with students and teachers in Chicago, Nelsen found great interest in moments of collective action, such as the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “I believe we should not try to explain away our failures in history but use them to understand our current challenges,” he said.
Economics and engagement
Economics and civic engagement go hand-in-hand, according to Richard Weisskoff, professor and chair of the international studies department. “Economics focuses on the material world and asks: ‘Who benefits—certain groups, or society as a whole?’” he said.
That’s a question Weisskoff asks his students to consider when analyzing the economics of global food production and distribution. In recent years, Weisskoff has taken students to Puerto Rico to work with local growers on coffee farms and to Peru to install an irrigation system with a rural community. “There are many areas of international study that students can consider for their civic engagement interests,” he said.
Each semester, students get a taste of farming closer to home with Weisskoff’s hands-on classes in the University’s Sustainability Garden, a green space on the Coral Gables campus. “There is a real student interest to grow what we eat,” he said. “This hands-on experience helps them become more involved locally, as well as globally.”
Weisskoff became interested in applying economic principles on a local level two decades ago when a developer hired him to compute the economic benefits of constructing large truck-based warehouses on open land in Broward County. Weisskoff visited the greenspace with his 5-year-old daughter, who ran freely in the fields and said it seemed like a good place to play. After gaining permission from the developer, Weisskoff advocated for the creation of a recreational park. His testimony moved the Board of County Commissioners to buy the land and create what has become Central Broward Park and Broward County Stadium in Lauderhill.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Weisskoff is applying the same approach to a proposed 800-acre industrial park to be built on farmland in the Homestead area of southern Miami-Dade County.
His class first visited the site and then redesigned it as a multi-purpose recreational, environmental, and agricultural park and nature preserve. The students testified about their proposal at Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners hearings last spring. “The proposed industrial project would add few jobs, generate truck traffic, lower property values, and create potential flooding for thousands of neighboring residences,” Weisskoff said. “While the county’s decision is still pending, the students learned first-hand how local government decisions are actually made.”
