Civic Action Weeks return Monday, Feb. 16, with about two-dozen workshops, field trips, lectures and volunteer opportunities. Hosted by the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, the annual event series promotes advocacy, dialogue and community building in the St. Louis region and beyond.
Programs range from a conversation with St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer about her journey to City Hall to T-Rav-ia, a St. Louis-themed trivia game hosted by the Sam Fox School’s Office for Socially Engaged Practice.
Civic action takes many forms, said Stephanie Kurtzman, the Peter G. Sortino Executive Director of the Gephardt Institute. She is thrilled that dozens of students and faculty members submitted proposals for the series.
“Civic Action Weeks shine a spotlight on the incredible civic impact work led by the WashU community throughout the year,” Kurtzman said. “This is an opportunity to energize, inspire, educate and galvanize students — and the entire WashU community — to discover or deepen each of our pathways to civic engagement. We always hope for great turnout and dialogue at our programs, but more important is that participants make a commitment to active involvement in civic life that is informed, collaborative and ongoing.”
For Books and Basketball volunteers, civic engagement is about helping children thrive at school. They are hosting a morning of academic games and hands-on learning in Risa Commons with students from KIPP Victory Academy. For the members of the student group Sharing With A Purpose, civic action means supporting the local economy and reducing waste. That group has organized a thrift crawl trip on Cherokee Street.
And for junior Shannon Rao, civic action is observing the courts in action. She is hosting a workshop on court watching, the practice of observing and documenting court proceedings to promote transparency and accountability. Rao, who has interned at St. Louis County Circuit Courts and ArchCity Defenders, aspires to be a lawyer. But she said the judicial system affects us all.
“We are all involved in the democratic process and a large component of our democracy is the judicial system,” Rao said. “Practices can differ in different counties, even in different courtrooms, so understanding the different procedures and how the courts work is really important for anyone who interacts with the court system. You may think that the courts are far removed from our daily lives, but, at some point, we may be called into jury duty or have a friend or family member be called to court.”
Isaac Plutzer, a PhD candidate in computational and systems biology at WashU Medicine, only recently discovered the power of civic engagement when he joined Bears Caucus, a new student organization committed to advocating for WashU. On Feb. 16, he will join fellow caucus members and WashU government relations leaders for the session “How WashU Engages with State and Local Government.”
“I never saw advocacy as part of my role as a scientist, but since the pandemic I’ve seen this progressive loss of trust in science. So when I got the email about the Bears Caucus, I took this leap into advocacy as a way to support science and research,” Plutzer said.
Since then, Plutzer has met with policymakers and learned more about the legislative process on the state and local level.
“I came to understand advocacy not as about lobbying for money or a particular vote, but about building relationships that can create a policy environment that supports science,” Plutzer said. “To me, civic action is about sharing your story.”
