American University
EN-5: Civic Engagement

The Center for Leadership & Community Engagement (CLCE) is AU’s hub for community outreach, volunteering, leadership development, and service-learning opportunities in Washington, DC and beyond. 

The department provides several experiences for AU students including the following:

DC Reads/Education & Equity

DC Reads is an umbrella of collaborative off-campus literacy programs that provide tutoring to children in need. It is a joint effort of American University, its students, DC Public Schools, and community-based organizations to support literacy in Washington, DC. In addition, to K-8 tutoring which has historically been our main program, over the past 3-4 years we have piloted other initiatives with high school students focused on high school completion and college access.

Alternative Break Program

Alternative Breaks are designed to heighten participants’ awareness of critical social issues, enhance their individual growth, and prepare them for lifelong social action. Each student-initiated trip integrates service, reflection, and education. Focus topics for the trips include poverty, Indigenous rights, structural racism, human rights, fair trade, gender equality, the environment, and more.

Venture to Volunteer

Venture to volunteer is a multi-day program for incoming first-year students at American University and is a part of AU's All American Welcome celebration. The program gives new students a chance to learn about how the city works, explore local social issues, and learn about cultural and historical resources that exist. Students will engage in one day of service and one day of immersive learning by visiting various sites in the city. For the day of service, students can choose from different issue areas, depending on their interests.

Community Service-Learning Program (CSLP)

CSLP provides an opportunity for students to engage in service in D.C. while earning credit towards graduation. Students serve their communities and apply theories from classroom learning to real life. 

Community-Based Courses (CB Courses)/ Community-Based (CB) Course designation

Students can take CB courses for a learning experience that is tied to community partners. 

Eagle Endowment for Public and Community Service

While many student groups formulate thoughtfully developed ideas for public and community service, few have the funds to put them into action. The Eagle Endowment addresses this challenge and empowers AU students by providing annual grants of up to $1,000 and a year of mentorship to students and groups that propose such initiatives. These awards are intended to support groups in their earliest planning and implementation phases, providing them with seed funds to launch visions for service. 

AU also has a program called, AU Votes. This was created to assist students with learning about registering and participating in elections.  

Attendance in civic engagement programs is tracked through the GivePulse, Engage platform, and internal tracking of the Alternative Break programming data. The data is limited to programs that are ran out of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement department. Data points recorded include the number of volunteer hours, types of activities, student participation rates, and demographics. Double counting was avoided by each student being assigned a unique identifier within the GivePulse platform. Activities that students pursue are cross-referenced to ensure each activity is uniquely recorded and not repeated under different categories. Note that any volunteer hours or activities not recorded in GivePulse are excluded and any data entries lacking essential details (e.g., hours, activity type) were excluded from the final analysis as well as any programs ran outside of the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement.

American University's AHealthyU program incentives staff volunteering by awarding points for all volunteer activities. Staff can report volunteer activities and earn 1 point per event. Points are then converted to Eagle Bucks that can be spent across campus.

https://www.american.edu/hr/ahealthyu/points.cfm 

The Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal, has given direct input to policy and legal formulation processes around carbon removal at the State level (Wisconsin, Illinois), federal (through Dept of Energy and work with the Council on Environmental Quality in the White House, for instance) and international (through work on international human rights provisions and UNCLOS – law of the sea). 

https://www.american.edu/sis/centers/carbon-removal/ 

In drafting a grant proposal “Evaluating Climate Laws, Institutions, Policies and Practices in nation-States (CLIPPS),” CEP researchers constructed an elite survey with questions about scores of components of climate change policy, with a goal of figuring out which of these has a greater effect on GHG emissions so that policy recommendations can emerge.

Also, in 2023, colleagues from Tulane University, Loyola University Chicago and AU-CEP conducted a national survey in Guatemala.  They have presented several papers on the results and are preparing journal submissions.  The results speak to the role of non-governmental adaptation assistance in the form of sugar cane companies’ funding of river embankments to diminish increases in riverine flooding. Flood-impacted respondents have lower trust in the sugar companies, confirming what focus group participants repeatedly told the research team, that the sugar companies paid to build embankments to protect the side of the Coyolate River with sugar fields, but this displaced more water to the other bank of the river, where subsistence farmers suffered.  The policy implication, that strong government participation in adaptation policy is required to promote climate justice, will hopefully generate discussion in policy communities.

The Center for Environmental Policy completed a series of projects with the US EPA on technology innovation and the environment. Two examples are projects on low-cost monitoring of nonpoint source pollution (mostly from agriculture) and the use of artificial intelligence in conducting risk assessments. These projects assessed policies for promoting cost-effective technologies and provided information to EPA about approaches to innovative technologies.

The Center for Environmental Policy completed a two-year project funded by the New York Community Trust that examined the future of environmental protection through an environmental justice lens. One aspect of the project considered how to promote a more diverse public environmental work force. The other aspect examined the use of innovative technologies, such as enhanced air monitoring and geographic information tools, to promote environmental justice in decision-making. The Center issued a report and engaged several stakeholders, with the goal of affecting administration and policy.

https://www.american.edu/spa/cep/ 

In 2021, President Burwell signed a letter along with the other members of the America Is All In Leaders Circle supporting a Nationally Determined Contribution emission reduction target of 50-52%. 

https://www.americaisallin.com/member/american-university 

President Burwell participated in (through the end of her tenure 6/30/2024) and represented American University as one of two higher education representatives on the Leaders Circle in America Is All In which advocates for climate policy advancement.