Public Achievement
Public Achievement begins its third year (2011-12) as a cross-listed Rhetoric and Political Science course. University student "coaches" will work with fourth and fifth grade students in the Blandy Elementary YES afterschool program commencing in October.
Blandy Elementary School
Coaches Kelsey and Matt
Public Achievement (PA) is a youth civic action program pioneered by the Augsburg College Center for Democracy and Citizenship. Twenty years after its inception, PA programs are pursued in 22 countries where university students are trained to coach elementary through high school youth in the core concepts of democracy including free spaces, freedom, public work, citizenship, diversity, accountability, politics, public good, public work, interests, and power. Small groups of students choose projects that serve the public good in their neighborhoods, schools, and communities and apply the core concepts in pursuing their project goals.
Public Achievement at Georgia College began in 2009 with a co-curricular pilot project. Nine university students affiliated with The Leadership Community, a residential learning community, worked with 12 tenth grade students enrolled in a beyond-the-school-day program called Youth Enrichment Services (YES). The pilot was a forerunner for a course, Grassroots Community Organizing I and II, cross-listed as a Rhetoric/Political Science/ Interdisciplinary Studies upper level course (POLS/RHET 4950 IDST 4990). Thirty-nine Georgia College students coached 110 Oak Hill Middle School students in the YES afterschool program.
Our first year experience (2009-10) yielded much learning and rich experience that led to the creation of a Georgia College Public Achievement eGuide.
Public Achievement began its second full year at Georgia College during the 2010 Fall Semester. The PA coaches worked with 5th grade students at Blandy Elementary School during the 2011 Spring Semester.
Public work
