Civic Engagement

According to EHU mission and vision, the idea of civic engagement is central to the University’s way to educate citizens. In the regional context of the Eastern Europe, Belarus, with its disrupted focus on the role of civil society, it is extremely important that EHU provides a pool of knowledge and possibilities for students to implement horizontal changes in their area of interests and needs.

To achieve this civic engagement mission, EHU actively promotes the integration of community-based work and contemporary learning methods, supporting students’ public-focused research, studies and projects, oriented toward the Eastern European context.

We realize the Civic Engagement mission of EHU as a private institution serving the public interest.

At EHU we provide workshops and training on key civic engagement concepts and skills, sharing best practices and know-how in building temporally and long-term partnerships with civil society representatives, private businesses, and international actors interested in partnering for the public health.

Best student works of the Bard International Network course in Civic Engagement

AY 2019/20 Autumn Semester. Group of Natalya Mikhailova and Kseniya Shtalenkova

Course summary

According to Civic Responsibility and Higher Education (edited by Thomas Ehrlich, published by Oryx Press, 2000): “Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes” (p. vi). It is crucial that: “A morally and civically responsible individual recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate” (p. xxvi). Together with guest lectures and experts, combining out-of-class fieldwork, case studies and creating our own projects, we will examine modes of community engagement on a number of levels, focusing on readings and activities that help us to hone skills for creating successful communities. A selection of final projects will be featured in an end-of-term presentation to the Network. Most powerful projects will be selected to be presented at the yearly Get Engaged Conference in Budapest. The course will explore historical, philosophical and practical elements of Civic Engagement while investigating the underlying question of what it means to be an engaged citizen in the early XXI century. The Civic Engagement course is taught by the faculty from EHU and the Bard Network of partner institutions, this semester including: Bard College in Annandale on Hudson, Al-Quds Bard Partnership, and Bard College Berlin.

Class 2019 (autumn semester) best works

Anhelina Shablouskaya, MA program in Public Policy, year 1

“The Civic Engagement course has expanded my knowledge of civil society and how to integrate my initiative into it. It helped me structure ideas, discuss socially-orientated and important issues, build international communication and multicultural professional networks, as well as establish a strong network on campus. In my opinion, the result and effectiveness of the course depended on teaching, and it was brilliant throughout this course, which is why I took another course from Bard. The course forms the concept of community based projects, contributes to a clear understanding of your initiative, and also helps to set up project logistics. Thus, I realized that Civic Engagement is not just a good-sounding word, but also something that concerns each of us in the aspect of being a good citizen.”

Arleha Pimenava, BA program in Media and Communication, year 1 (high residence)

“I want to thank Natalia and Kseniya for such an important and interesting course. The Civic Engagement course made me think about invisible problems and allowed me to understand that I can change it. One of the motivating assignments was to write an essay “What does it mean to be a good citizen?” at the beginning and the end of the course. Both of them are completely different, because my view of it has changed. Now I have my project on Financial Literacy for teens, which helps people and especially teens at orphanages. I can confidently say that the Civic Engagement course influenced it.”

Raman Hankovich, BA program in Visual Design, year 1 (high residence)

“That was a useful and enlightening course to my mind. It helped to get more familiar with the field of Civic Engagement not only for the students who haven’t got experience in such practices but also supplied those, who are a little bit more acquainted with it, with literature and media to study, cases to explore and topics to think about. The course is quite well-balanced and provides both theoretical and practical elements (including taking an interview!) and gives a good launch pad for making community-based projects and becoming a more aware and more active citizen. Also it should be mentioned that the linkage opportunity within the Bard Network was extremely helpful in exchanging experiences and perspectives with AQB students. P.S. EXTREMELY HELPFUL, I must say.”

Viktoryia Halavach, Integrated Studies program in International Law and European Union Law (low residence)

“I absolutely loved this course! I’d say that this course differs from any other: I didn’t need to read too much or write, I didn’t do a lot of typical academic tasks but I reflected with myself a lot after discussion of every topic. I loved how many conversations we had in class and I as a low residence student could join all of them via BlueJeans: it was so interesting to listen to opinions of my colleagues and discuss important topics with them. And I’m 100% sure that this course really teaches Civic Engagement – I’ve built great networking with colleagues from this course! And last but not least: conducting my own project nowadays, I don’t have any doubts if it fits the Civic Engagement framework – now I know how to create the stuff which will engage people!”

Yana Verenchuk, BA program in Media and Communication, year 1 (high residence)

“In the first semester, I took the Civic Engagement course with Kseniya Shtalenkova and Natalia Mikhailova. I did not regret that I signed up for it, since it was a very informative and productive course on civic responsibility. This course helped me in creating my mini-project, participating in projects of my classmates, as well as in developing impartiality. I really liked our online classes with another university, where we had the opportunity to communicate with students from other countries and find out their experience in managing projects. The most important outcome for me is that I have got rid of my fears and prejudices about creating something of my own. So now it’s your turn not to be afraid to sign up for the Bard Network Courses!”

Assignment 1. What does it mean to be a good citizen?

Raman Hankovich, Viktoryia Halavach, Yana Verenchuk

Assignment 2. Interview with an expert

Anhelina Shablouskaya, Arleha Pimenava, Raman Hankovich

Assignment 3. Linkage activities with Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Science

Anhelina Shablouskaya, Raman Hankovich, Yana Verenchuk

Final Projects selected to the 2020 Get Engaged Student Action and Youth Leadership Conference

Anhelina Shablouskaya, “EHU Student Network Initiative” (description and presentation)

Arleha Pimenava, “Financial Literacy for Teens” (description)

Viktoryia Halavach, “Forum Theatre Love without Borders” (description)