Activation Plan
Below is an overview of some campus activities:
Iona University has several activities planned for this year to promote civic development and engagement. We recently were awarded a Department of Education AHC-Seminars grant, Common Sense and the Constitution: Civic Engagement in the Spirit of 1776”, a transformative three-year project ali offering high-impact seminars for educators and students on American history and civics in honor of the Semiquincentennial. The project aims for a broad audience, including Iona’s students, faculty, and staff, K-12 educators, local community partners, and state and national virtual participants. It is expected to engage over 1,600 participants in the three-year grant cycle. The project is constituted by a three-part series of seminars; supported by the creation of a digital civics innovation toolkit, and designed to enhance civic knowledge, cultivate critical thinking, and foster leadership among students while engaging with the public; revision of Honors program curriculum humanities coursework to expliciting include civics education; workshop and conference activities include a spring 2026 conference and fall 2026 conference in honor of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
Highlights:
- Iona University has made civic education a visible and mission-aligned priority, integrating democratic engagement, public history, and constitutional understanding across the curriculum, co-curricular programming, and community partnerships. Rooted in the University’s Catholic and liberal arts traditions, these efforts emphasize ethical leadership, informed citizenship, and public responsibility.
- Iona has explicitly included civic engagement in our core curriculum. Activities related to democracy and civic engagement abound through both the academic and co-curricular spaces through course activity, workshops and panels, conferences, student research and internship activity, voter registration drives, and so many other ways.
- A distinguishing feature of Iona’s civic work is its national leadership in Thomas Paine studies and public history. Through the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies, the University has become a hub for public engagement focused on democracy, constitutional thought, and civic responsibility. Recent initiatives include student-led public history practicums connected to the U.S. Semiquincentennial, public lectures and book talks that bring civic discourse beyond the classroom, and international experiential learning that situates American democratic ideas in a global context. Iona has a number of partnerships with external entities such as Revolution 250 organizations, both local and regional, local government, the League of Women Voters, and others to help us scale and engage with the community in civic initiatives.
- These activities are being scaled through our recently awarded multi-year, federally funded civics initiative that connects higher education, K–12 educators, and community partners, expanding Iona’s reach and impact in civic learning. Civic themes are further reinforced through service-learning pedagogy, curricular integration, and campus-wide efforts to support informed participation in democratic life.
- Together, these initiatives reflect a cohesive, sustainable civics ecosystem—one that demonstrates institutional commitment, broad adoption, and growing capacity to advance civic knowledge and engagement at a critical moment for democratic education.
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Below is an overview of some campus activities:
Iona University has several activities planned for this year to promote civic development and engagement. We recently were awarded a Department of Education AHC-Seminars grant, Common Sense and the Constitution: Civic Engagement in the Spirit of 1776”, a transformative three-year project ali offering high-impact seminars for educators and students on American history and civics in honor of the Semiquincentennial. The project aims for a broad audience, including Iona’s students, faculty, and staff, K-12 educators, local community partners, and state and national virtual participants. It is expected to engage over 1,600 participants in the three-year grant cycle. The project is constituted by a three-part series of seminars; supported by the creation of a digital civics innovation toolkit, and designed to enhance civic knowledge, cultivate critical thinking, and foster leadership among students while engaging with the public; revision of Honors program curriculum humanities coursework to expliciting include civics education; workshop and conference activities include a spring 2026 conference and fall 2026 conference in honor of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
Highlights:
- Iona University has made civic education a visible and mission-aligned priority, integrating democratic engagement, public history, and constitutional understanding across the curriculum, co-curricular programming, and community partnerships. Rooted in the University’s Catholic and liberal arts traditions, these efforts emphasize ethical leadership, informed citizenship, and public responsibility.
- Iona has explicitly included civic engagement in our core curriculum. Activities related to democracy and civic engagement abound through both the academic and co-curricular spaces through course activity, workshops and panels, conferences, student research and internship activity, voter registration drives, and so many other ways.
- A distinguishing feature of Iona’s civic work is its national leadership in Thomas Paine studies and public history. Through the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies, the University has become a hub for public engagement focused on democracy, constitutional thought, and civic responsibility. Recent initiatives include student-led public history practicums connected to the U.S. Semiquincentennial, public lectures and book talks that bring civic discourse beyond the classroom, and international experiential learning that situates American democratic ideas in a global context. Iona has a number of partnerships with external entities such as Revolution 250 organizations, both local and regional, local government, the League of Women Voters, and others to help us scale and engage with the community in civic initiatives.
- These activities are being scaled through our recently awarded multi-year, federally funded civics initiative that connects higher education, K–12 educators, and community partners, expanding Iona’s reach and impact in civic learning. Civic themes are further reinforced through service-learning pedagogy, curricular integration, and campus-wide efforts to support informed participation in democratic life.
- Together, these initiatives reflect a cohesive, sustainable civics ecosystem—one that demonstrates institutional commitment, broad adoption, and growing capacity to advance civic knowledge and engagement at a critical moment for democratic education.