Education

• Curricular

POSC 20144, Practicing American and Texas Politics (4 credit hours, Citizenship and Social Values (CSV) and Social Science (SS) core credit)

    1. Lecture Component – 3 hours per week – an introduction to American and Texas Government and

        Politics.

    2. Laboratory Components –1 hour per week weekly labs involving student group policy projects and

        speakers from local governments, political parties, interest groups, non-profits, etc.

POSC 40960, Civic Literacy Internships - these require 150 work hours in a local government or non-profit NGO, over a 15-week term.  These hours may be adjusted to fit summer internships, but the 150 hour requirement will still apply.

• Extra-Curricular

Collaboration with Leadership Fort Worth:

The Board of Directors of Leadership Fort Worth voted in August, 2007 to enter into a collaborative relationship with the Center for Civic Literacy. This will entail co-sponsorship of Center events (subject to LFW Board approval) as well as offering graduates of LFW the opportunity to become individual members of the Center for Civic Literacy. The expectation is that graduates of LFW will be part of the core of community volunteers who will be engaged in developing the community outreach program of the Center.

Collaboration with World Affairs Council:

The Center has recently renewed its partnership with the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. This collaboration will allow students to attend programs of the World Affairs Council held on the TCU campus without charge. Other opportunities for collaboration are under exploration.

Great Decisions Series:

The Center is working with local congregations, including St. Stephen Presbyterian Church, Congregation Beth-El, Trinity Episcopal Church, and University Christian Church, to sponsor community discussions on contemporary foreign policy issues facing the United States and the global community.

Conferences:

The inaugural Civic Literacy Conference was held on January 28, 2006, that date having been designated “Civic Literacy Day in Fort Worth” by the Fort Worth City Council.   The conference was attended by about 150 students and members of the community.   The program focused on presentations by the City of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Independent School District.

We expect to hold public policy conferences regularly, some of which may be chiefly of interest to academicians, others of which may be chiefly of interest to local officials and policy activists.

Major Speakers:

• September 18, 2007 - Lee Hamilton, Co-chair of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group
• March 4, 2008 - Seymour Hersh - Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author
• April 24, 2008 - Ishmael Beah - Former boy soldier and author of A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier