Why using Project Citizen benefits students

The Nevada Center for Civic Engagement is Nevada’s home to Project Citizen, a program that walks students through a service learning project that leads them to taking informed action. Project Citizen is a community engagement program where students research solutions in their own community.

According to an Edutopia article service learning can be defined as “In service learning, students learn educational standards through tackling real-life problems in their community.”

If this last year (a year that included a global pandemic, school closures, economy ups and downs, civil rights movement, elections, and so much more) has taught us anything it’s that being connected and staying connected to your community is good for everyone.

According to the Mayo Clinic, community service:

• Decreases the risk of depression,

• Gives a sense of purpose and teaches valuable skills,

• Helps people stay physically and mentally active,

• Reduces stress levels, and

• Helps people meet other people and build relationships.

While service learning is nothing new, many high schools across the country encourage (if not require) seniors to complete a service learning project in order to graduate. In fact a bill going through the Nevada Legislature this session will encourage students to complete a service learning project in high school in order to achieve a Seal of Civics on their diploma.

It’s easy to see why adding Service Learning into our schools would be beneficial and NVCCE is here for this! We strongly believe in community involvement, the core of what we do is engage students in their communities.

Why use Project Citizen in your classroom or with your student group?

• Connect with real world problems and events

• Integrate a variety of related ideas and skills

• Multi-Disciplinary

• Authentic Assessment directly correlated to instructional activities

• Cooperate with peers in group settings

• Program has built in clear and attainable goals

• Students evaluate their own progress through self-assessment

• Parent and Community involvement

We wholeheartedly support SB194 which gives students the opportunity to earn the Seal of Civics on their diploma and participate in a service learning project along with gaining an education in high quality history, civics, and government education.

We encourage you to to share why you believe community engaged learning is important for our schools by submitting your opinion on SB194 as well as AB447 (a bill to fund NVCCE programs) by going to the NV Legislature website: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/81st2021/