Here you can find all the public information about the College Readiness Through Civic Engagement: A Knowledge for Freedom Initiative. If you have any more questions regarding the grant, feel free to contact us. We are more than welcome to answer any questions. 

Summer seminar

The fully residential four-week long summer seminar will be held at the Valdosta State University campus. The summer seminar is unlike any traditional course and will not include any lectures but will include intense discussions about great books that have shaped our democratic foundations, knowledge of citizenship in a liberal democracy, and social and economic justice issues. Students will do critical reading and writing about the works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbs, Locke, Lincoln, Francis Fukuyama, Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Emma Lazarus, and others. Students will develop a deeper appreciation for the humanities as a field resulting from participating in the summer seminar.  

civic engagement project

Following the completion of the four-week summer seminar, students will work on a year-long civic engagement project throughout the fall and spring. These projects will focus on a selected civic issue or problem and will involve working with local civic organizations and activists. Possible topics for projects include food security, poverty and homelessness, social and environmental justice, climate change, immigration and refugees, race relations, voter rights and participation, rural health care, rural population decline, rural economic opportunities, and education. Program faculty mentors and VSU undergraduate student mentors will help students with designing and executing their civic projects. Upon completing their civic projects, students will present their civic projects as a poster or three-minute video presentation at VSU’s annual undergraduate symposium held in April of the following year.  

wiregrass region of south Georgia

The Wiregrass Region of South Georgia contains up to 41 counties. These counties are eligible for the College Readiness Through Civic Engagement: A Knowledge for Freedom Initiative. 

The 41 counties include Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Camden, Calhoun, Charlton, Clay, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Cook, Crisp, Dougherty, Decatur, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Lanier, Lee, Lowndes, Miller, Mitchell, Pierce, Quitman, Randolph, Seminole, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Turner, Ware, Wilcox, and Worth.