Prescott College
EN-5: Civic Engagement

Arizona Serve, a program of Prescott College, places AmeriCorps members with local organizations to increase their capacity to address poverty. These members develop the skills and experience to become the next generation of leaders working for a more just society. In 2022, Arizona Serve was awarded a grant as part of the inaugural Public Health Corps. Launched by the Biden-Harris Administration in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control with American Rescue Plan funds, the new corps addresses the public health needs of local communities and creates pathways to good quality public health-related careers. Today, the team is over 150 strong and is proud to have one of the largest and top-performing AmeriCorps projects in Arizona. Arizona Serve regularly recruits students for service-learning and civic engagement opportunities to pair with their educational journey.

Additionally, in October 2024, the Board of Trustees agreed to a series of curriculum changes. Starting next year, all new students -- undergraduate and graduate -- in all academic programs will have a required service-learning component to graduate.

We administered a Student Sustainability Survey in November 2024 to track the percentage of students who performed community performed community service for the benefit and betterment of a community within the last year. Using a representative sample, 56% of students reported participating in community service.

Despite being close to the 50% point threshold, we still opted to report a range of 50-100% rather than a more conservative estimate for several reasons:

1. We directly track Prescott College students participating in Arizona Serve AmeriCorps service projects during 2023-2024. These students are required to perform community service in Arizona's local communities. The number of on-campus students who reported community service in the survey appeared lower than the number we tracked through AmeriCorps records.

2. Work-study students must dedicate some hours to service-learning or civic engagement activities. However, the survey results for on-campus students engaging in community service seemed lower than anticipated, given this requirement.

3. Prescott College implemented curriculum changes, approved by the Board in October 2024, mandating that all new students complete a service-learning component to graduate. These changes will result in 100% of students reporting civic engagement in future surveys.

Considering these factors, we kept the 50-100% option over a more conservative estimate, and we anticipate significantly higher civic engagement percentages (near 100%) in our next STARS submission.

The college organizes one or two service events annually on a weekend or holiday (e.g., MLK Day), which are openly encouraged for Prescott College students and employees. On MLK Day, a community march for justice begins on campus and enters the town square. After the march, there are several service opportunities for participants to join at various sites around the Prescott community. Additionally, the Butte Creek Restoration Council has multiple workdays (Saturdays) in the spring and autumn months for college and community members to join in the restoration efforts of a local watershed. Refreshments are usually provided for these service events, but no other incentives are typically offered.

Our Sustainability Coordinator serves on the Quad Cities Climate Collaborative board and actively contributes to a Sustainability and Resiliency section of the 2025 Prescott City Plan, facilitated by the Prescott City Manager—this involved writing, editing, and public commentary sessions. Some drafted documents have been uploaded to the QCCC Climate Action Hub and the Resources section.

Faculty Peter Sherman, who taught Global Environmental Problems: Root Causes & Innovative Solutions, drafted a resolution to install a Sustainability & Resiliency Advisory Committee with students from the course. If approved, the eleven-member committee will advise Prescott City Council on sustainability-focused issues in the region. The committee ordinance is now being proposed to Prescott City Council in January 2025 for review and later 2025 for a council vote.

Prescott College conducted a transportation connectivity study in Fall 2023 to see if transportation barriers prevent students from reaching essential services and commerce. The study revealed an evident lack of mobility to grocery and health services. As a result, the Sustainability Center and the Student Activity Center worked with the Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization to establish a rideshare program to deliver students to their requested destinations at minimal cost.

Prescott College actively participated in securing public and political support for implementing a climate impact assessment. It supported The PROTECT campaign (Planning for the Resiliency of Our Towns, Environment, Climate, and Tourism) to find common ground among individuals and organizations committed to climate action. On May 25, 2022, the Prescott City Council unanimously approved moving forward with this assessment, completed free of cost by the University of Arizona CLIMAS group, which specializes in modeling climate impacts in local southwest communities. The climate profile for Prescott was released and presented to the Prescott City Council in February 2023. Senior Leadership of Prescott College publicly endorsed the climate assessment and assisted in drafting a Local Climate Adaptation/Mitigation document to supplement the data in the profile.