In the CLS we believe that civic responsibility starts at home in the way we live and work together in our residential halls, on our campus, in our local communities, regions, nations, and world. In collaboration with our partners across the College, we offer an array of opportunities to build the mindsets, knowledge, and skills necessary to become equity-minded civic agents in just about any community we might find ourselves inhabiting.
Opportunities for Civic Learning abound at Grinnell! Do you want to:
- Join us on a local “Social Justice Tour” to learn more about our local community’s needs and innovative change-making?
- Volunteer with a local organization?
- Take a community engaged class?
- Collaborate with a community partner on an on-going service project?
- Participate in or lead a community dialogue?
- Take part in a workshop with our Social Innovator in Residence?
- Apply for a Service Leadership Work-Study position?
- Learn to diagram the systemic underpinnings of an entrenched social or environmental issue?
- Help your peers register to vote?
- Collaborate with local activists? or
- Lead or explore your own distinctive initiative?
You don’t have to do it all, you only need to do what is right for you, right now.
Click on a button above or meet with one of our staff members to learn more about who we are and how we can help you hone your civic aspirations.
News & Advice
By Gina Clayton-Johnson, January 22, 2024, for Convergence Magazine
Gina Clayton-Johnson, pictured above with students at Saints Rest, was the recipient of our 2017 Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize. She recently shared the following about a piece she’s …
by Kip Holley, The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University
Executive Summary
Civic engagement is more than collection of meetings, techniques, and tools. It takes place in an environment made up of …
Author: Skoll Centre, Topic: Systems Change, Interest: Systems Change Observatory
This month, the Systems Change Observatory (SCO) explores how social movements support systems change. Jessica Jacobson and Dr Sudhir Rama Murthy spoke with Charmian Love, Skoll Centre Social Entrepreneur in …