Civic Leadership Summit

APPLY BY MAY 6

This summer, Freedom and Citizenship is inviting alumni to take part in our inaugural civic leadership summit. The summit's goal is to train and support alumni in starting F&C reading clubs on their own college campuses. By participating in the civic leadership summit, scholars will develop their teaching and leadership skills and help bring the magic of F&C to others.

The residential summit will take place from July 19 - 22 on Columbia's campus and will include seminar-style discussions with professors, teacher training sessions, and leadership-building workshops. You'll work collaboratively with other students in your small cohort to create your own syllabus of texts that interest and inspire you, prepare to lead engaging discussions just as your summer professors did, and organize a reading group of your own on your college campus.

Scholars will receive $400 for participating in the four-day summit, $400 for organizing a campus reading club during the fall semester and writing a blog post about it on the F&C website, and a $200 food and beverage budget for their club meetings.

CLS Summer 2022 Schedule by Freedom & Citizenship

To apply, fill out the short application form below and answer the following essay question in 350 - 550 words:

What big-picture question do you really want to discuss with your peers? Please select one question and explain what makes it timely, and why you think your peers would want to participate in this conversation. Please select a text, artwork, or other media that raises this particular question for you. Tell us about the text, why it resonates with you, and why you think it could create a rich conversation around your central question.  

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Frequently Asked Questions

We will follow Columbia University's Covid-19 Guidelines which are adaptive to current circumstances. All participants must be fully vaccinated and receive a booster shot if eligible for one (six months after second vaccination dose). Selected participants will be informed of any testing, masking, and other requirements before the summit begins. 

Alumni of Knowledge for Freedom programs who are current Freshmen, Sophomores, or Juniors in college.

We'll return to some texts from your program summer, like Douglass, Lincoln, and DuBois, and add some new ones based on your interests. 

No! The summit will provide scholars with tools and a plan for starting a reading club on their own college campuses. Over the summers, scholars will do some work to prepare for their reading clubs, and check in with the program coordinator about their progress. During the academic year, scholars are expected to organize and host four meetings of their reading clubs and write about the experience on our blog.

Scholars will receive a $400 check at the end of the summit. In the fall, scholars can submit receipts for reimbursement of food, (non-alcoholic) drinks, and supplies for their on-campus reading clubs up to $200. After running four reading clubs on campus and writing about the experience for the blog, scholars will receive the final payment of $400, likely in December or January.