Public Achievement
Public Achievement (PA) is a youth civic action program pioneered by the University of Minnesota Center for Democracy and Citizenship. Twenty years after its inception, PA programs exist in eighteen countries with thousands of young people involved. 
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 pilot project. Nine university students affiliated with The Leadership Community, a residential learning community, worked with twelve tenth grade students enrolled in a beyond-the-school-day program called Youth Enrichment Services (YES). The pilot was a forerunner for a course scheduled for the next academic year, Grassroots Community Organizing, cross-listed as a Rhetoric/Political Science/ Interdisciplinary Studies upper level course (POLS/RHET 4950 IDST 4990). The course will explore active citizenship and organizing for the public good through readings, writing, presentations, and discussions. The university students will work with PA groups of middle school students over the course of the academic year.
Baldwin High School and GCSU Public Achievement students preview a presentation on their BHS Tardy Policy project.
