Our Blog
Up-to-date information about GC and the broader community we serve.
Nov022017Read More >What We’re Reading
Every few weeks, GC picks out a selection of articles that are relevant to our work and to the civics education space as a whole. We at GC love to expand our learning in every aspect of what we do, and we hope you enjoy our selections! Should we worry that half of Americans trust […]
Oct262017Read More >Why Oklahoma?
Why Oklahoma? By Scott Warren, CEO For the first six years of Generation Citizen’s programming, all of our sites were located on the coasts: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, and California. We realized though, that if we were serious about proving that Action Civics could work anywhere, we needed to expand to more diverse geographies. […]
Oct232017Read More >Teachable Moments in Civics Class
Teachable Moments in Civics Class: Responding to Misguided Opinions and Declarations by Bonnie Mills, Manager of National Program Development and Partnerships “The Electoral College isn’t fair! Why would I vote if my vote might not count?!” As a former American Government and Politics teacher, I heard this sentiment from students often. Upon learning that the Electoral […]
Oct162017Read More >Learning about Democracy, One Phone Call at a Time
Learning about Democracy, One Phone Call at a Time: Why early experiences with civic engagement matter by Isa Ballard, Finance Manager I stumbled into my first substantive experience with civic engagement. I was a sophomore in college, it was my first presidential election as an eligible voter, and I wanted to get involved but I wasn’t […]
Oct102017Read More >What’s This About A State Constitutional Convention?
A Lesson Package to Educate New York’s Voters Young & Old about This Rare Automatic Ballot Question In just under a month New Yorkers will have a once every 20 year opportunity to decide whether to call a constitutional convention to review our New York State constitution. Despite how little time remains before this rare […]
Sep292017Read More >Listening and Learning from Focus Groups this Spring
GC’s Impact on Students, Post-Programming At Generation Citizen, we’re in this for the long game. We know that a functioning democracy requires the sustained investment and engagement of its citizens, whether it be an emerging democracy, or one 250 years down the road of its citizen-led experiment. We know that the requisite habits of active […]
Sep282017Read More >Action Civics for District Leaders
We’re launching a peer community for school district administrators It is vital for the strength of our democracy that every student in the U.S. receive an Action Civics education. Generation Citizen will teach upwards of 13,000 students this year, and 30,000 per year by 2020. But there are over 50 million K-12 students in the country. […]
Sep212017Read More >A Lesson on New York State’s Constitutional Convention
Attention Educators: We Have Lesson Plans on the New York State Constitutional Convention! A large portion of New York voters do not understand or even know, about the 2017 Constitutional Convention ballot measure and the potential consequences of the vote. To both ensure a more informed electorate, and to also engage young people in this […]
Sep202017Read More >Improving Democracy Starts with its Citizens
Improving Democracy Starts with its Citizens How a focus on the citizen-centric process of democracy leads to better outcomes By Emely Anico, Nora Howe, Brandon Klugman, Sydney Menzin, Sarah Nicita, Scott Warren Over the last few months, several of us at Generation Citizen, with the help of Brown University students, have been conducting research centered on the […]
Sep182017Read More >We’re Hiring a Generation Citizen Massachusetts Development Manager
Generation Citizen is a quickly scaling national non-profit that works to ensure that every student in the United States receives an effective Action Civics education, providing them with the knowledge and skills necessary to participate in our democracy as active citizens. We envision a country of young people working to collectively strengthen our American democracy. […]
- Sep142017Read More >
What We’re Reading
Every few weeks, GC picks out a selection of articles that are relevant to our work and to the civics education space as a whole. We at GC love to expand our learning in every aspect of what we do, and we hope you enjoy our selections! If “Did Not Vote” Had Been A Candidate […]
Sep132017Read More >Action Civics Across the Nation: Our Strategic Plan
When we founded Generation Citizen about eight years ago, the promise of the organization became apparent as soon as we entered classrooms. We immediately saw young people advocating for better public transit, tackling the opioid crisis before it became a national hot topic, grappling with police-community relations. We quickly saw the power of Action Civics. And the […]
- Sep082017Read More >
We’re Hiring A Generation Citizen Bay Area Executive Director
Overview: Generation Citizen (generationcitizen.org), a quickly scaling non-profit that seeks to ensure that every young person in the United States receives an effective action civics education, is looking for a proven leader to take the helm as Executive Director of its Bay Area site, currently serving more than 2,000 students per year. The Executive Director […]
Sep062017Read More >Action Civics in the Lone Star State
Action Civics in the Lone Star State: A return to government after Hurricane Harvey by Lucianne Nelson, Central Texas Program Associate When my parents announced that we would be moving from California to Texas, my 13 year-old self immediately envisioned a wild west that was identical to the frontiers of John Wayne movies. I fully […]
Aug302017Read More >The Importance of Civic Participation in Moments of Perceived Institutional Failure
The Importance of Civic Participation in Moments of Perceived Institutional Failure: Lessons from China By Eli Emigh, New York City Program Associate I found the importance of civic participation at a time in my life when my own views on civic engagement were nihilistic at best. I was a college student studying abroad in Beijing, […]
- Aug282017Read More >
Generation Citizen Massachusetts Program Manager
Generation Citizen (GC) is excited to announce that we are looking for an exceptional leader to join our team as the Massachusetts Program Manager. The Program Manager will execute GC’s ambitious strategy for action civics programming across Massachusetts, working directly with a local site team as well as educators and administrators from statewide. The position […]
- Aug222017Read More >
We’re Hiring an Oklahoma Program Associate
Generation Citizen Oklahoma Program Associate Generation Citizen (GC) is excited to announce that we are looking for an exceptional professional to join our team as the Oklahoma Program Associate. The Program Associate will work directly with college student volunteers, teachers, and youth to support action civics programming across classrooms in Oklahoma. The position will be full-time […]
- Aug162017Read More >
What We’re Reading
Every few weeks, GC picks out a selection of articles that are relevant to our work and to the civics education space as a whole. We at GC love to expand our learning in every aspect of what we do, and we hope you enjoy our selections! Put Me In Coach: Reworking Social Studies for […]
- Apr182013Read More >
It’s Up to Us to Save Congress
Being the Executive Director of a non-profit that prides itself of non-partisanship, I take care to never be overtly partisan or political in public spaces, like this blog. But I am pretty pissed off about Congress voting down the gun control bill. And, actually, I think it is completely a non-partisan issue. Universal background checks […]
- Apr142013Read More >
Disparate Leadership
Disparate Leadership A few weeks ago, at a conference for Draper Richards Kaplan Fellows, we were asked to define our own leadership styles. We were then told that if we really wanted to know what we were like as leaders, we should ask our employees, who would have a better sense of our strengths and […]
- Apr132013Read More >
The Introverted Leader
As the Executive Director of a non-profit, I spend most of my days with my “game-face” on. I manage, and attempt to motivate, our team, I attempt to impress potential donors, I give speeches. I smile, I laugh, I engage. And then, at the end of the day, I’m utterly exhausted, and there’s nothing that […]
- Apr072013Read More >
What Stresses You Out?
I think that my job is stressful. And I think that too many social entrepreneurs are not honest and open about how this stress manifests itself. For a variety of reasons, the “myth of the social entrepreneur” has emerged, tying itself essentially to the passionate, incredibly hard-working, charismatic individual that will do whatever they can […]
- Mar302013Read More >
Talking About Money
When I first started Generation Citizen, as a senior at Brown, my primary concern with making it a full-fledged non-profit was fundraising- I had no idea how to do it, and the concept seemed terrifying to me, especially in the midst of the financial collapse. The only reason that GC got off the ground (and […]