Miami University

Overview:

The 2009 Summer Honors Institute, B the Change (U Wish 2 C) is an interdisciplinary service-based learning project developed through the Lifelong Learning office at Miami University in collaboration with Miami’s Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine.

B the Change (U Wish 2 C) will provide students with opportunities for civic engagement through in-depth learning during sustained service projects that are uniquely different from those experienced at the high school level.

As opposed to distinctly separate courses and isolated service opportunities, the curriculum of the Institute is a coherent and focused interdisciplinary approach to real-life applications of learning as related to civic engagement. An emphasis is placed on higher level critical thinking skills that are developed to be culturally relevant and personally meaningful.

The Institute creates opportunities for students to examine and evaluate their expectations and preconceptions of “service” in a meaningful way with the hopes of building a lifelong commitment to civic engagement.

The institute will focus on developing sensitivity to collective human concerns and needs and will provide opportunities for youth to build a caring disposition as well as a knowledge base of select societal issues. The overarching theme, civic engagement, will provide the basis for the curriculum and will be strategically interwoven throughout the program. With a particular focus on individual and collective responsibility, students will be provided opportunities to engage in civic action whereby they will actually have the opportunity to practice “being the change they wish to see” in the world.