• THE CIVICS UNPLUGGED FELLOWSHIP

      The CU Fellowship is an entirely free, entirely virtual leadership program for America's next "Civic Superheroes."

      Beginning in January 2021, the Fellowship brings exceptional high school-aged leaders from across the nation into a digital-first community, and empowers them with the tools, training, and support to build the future of American democracy.

      The '21 Fellowship applications opens in September 2020.

    • YOUR ROAD TO BECOMING A CIVIC SUPERHERO

      The Five Phases of CU's 2021 Fellowship

      1

      ORIENTATION PHASE 🚀

      Early January 2021

      Each Fellows meets their mentor ("Guide") and discussion group ("Junto"); and completes the self-guided orientation course that will set them up for success during the rest of the program.

      2

      TRAINING PHASE 💪

      Mid-January to late-May 2021

      15 weeks of interactive online learning about the challenges and opportunities with today's state of American politics, the fundamentals of personal development, the fundamentals of "how to get things done", and the fundamentals of systems thinking. See the curriculum units below.

      3

      MATCHING PHASE 🤝

      May 2021

      During the Matching Phase, which overlaps with the final four weeks of the Training Phase, Fellows will either:

      1. Interview with organizations that suit their interests and skillsets for a summer internship, OR
      2. Develop and refine and idea to pursue for the Building Phase

      By the end of this Phase, Fellows will have a plan for the Building Phase.

      4

      BUILDING + PLEDGING PHASE 🛠

      June - July 2021

      During this Phase, which takes place over 9 weeks between the start of June and the end of July 2021, Fellows will either work as a paid intern at an organization making systems change at a local level, or pursue their own systems change project with a paid stipend.

       

      In the meantime, they will develop their Civics 2030 Pledge to develop as leaders over the course of the decade and help realize the vision laid out in the Civics 2030 Declaration.

       

      At the midpoint of this Phase on July 4th, 2021, Fellows will sign the Civics 2030 Declaration with these Pledges, officially initiated them into CU's Civics 2030 community.

       

      By the end of this phase, Fellows will each have created a "Capstone project" distilling what they've learned from this phase into a shareable medium.

      5

      TEACHING PHASE 👩‍🏫

      Early August 2021

      During the Teaching Phase, which takes place over the first two weeks of August 2021, Fellows will take turns presenting their Capstone project which they created during the Building + Pledging Phase.
       

      They will each share or deliver this Capstone to their Junto, and some will have the opportunity to share or deliver their Capstone with the whole Civics Unplugged community.

    • THE '21 FELLOWSHIP CURRICULUM

      The Fellowship's "Training Phase" will give you the tools, skills, and attitudes you need to challenge and change America's broken political system.
       

      1. In Unit 1, entitled How to Save American Democracy, you will get an overview of many of the overarching challenges and threats our democracy faces, why we created "The Civics 2030 Campaign", and how you can help us hatch a plan to save and build the future of American democracy (seriously).
         
      2. In Unit 2, entitled How to Know and Grow Thyself, you will learn the importance of self-awareness and how to design and manage their lives. In this unit, Fellows will become familiar with self-inquiry and self-care techniques.
         
      3. In Unit 3, entitled How to Get Things Done, you will learn about the different tools, systems, and practices you can adopt to be more organized and productive in the digital age; and how to build communities of purpose capable of making lasting systemic change.
         
      4. In Unit 4, entitled How to "Map" Our Democratic Challenges, you will learn about how to understand your own mental models, how to grapple with diverse world views, and how to "map" a system, so your understand the patterns, conditions, and leverage points of the system before you "intervene."
         
      5. In Unit 5, entitled How to Build Toward a Brighter 2030, you will personally draft a pledge for building a brighter future for American democracy. So that you do this well, you will first study how democratic systems have changed in countries around the world to learn about who and what it takes to evolve American democracy.

    • LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

      We put together a digital whitepaper to shine a light on why and how we designed the '21 Fellowship, what the Fellowship will look like week-to-week, what Fellows will learn, and more.

    • HEAR FROM OUR FOUNDING FELLOWS

      Zia, 16

      Denver, CO

      "The CU Fellowship not only helped me and the other Fellows define our civic purpose, but connected us with the world unlike any other program or organization I have experienced. My weekly discussions with my peers in the program helped me understand so many more perspectives and have inspired me to seek out new experiences. The memories and lessons from the Fellowship will stay with me forever. I learned more about myself than I would have ever expected, and the goals and expectations I set for myself in the program will undoubtedly follow me as I continue to think critically about how to build the future of our democracy."

      Ethan, 15

      Islip, NY

      "Given the tremendous challenges that American democracy faces in this new decade, the CU Fellowship was a source of hope for my generation as we look to take on responsibility for building the future. The Fellowship cultivated a sense of mutual understanding among my peers that we face a lot of problems, and that it's much better to face them together. When we 'graduated' from the Fellowship on July 4th, 2020, the Fellows and I left with an abundance of knowledge and resources envision a brighter future for democracy and to take tangible steps to make that future a reality."

      Tatyannah, 16

      Riverview, FL

      "Civics Unplugged was a big highlight of this pandemic. Given that the Fellowship was virtual before social distancing, CU remained a rare constant in a world full of changes. Beyond the extremely relevant curriculum that challenged us to understand who we are and who we want to be, I truly loved the virtual world we built, where we all had the chance to know and trust and learn from each other. Our chats and calls were how we could, on one hand get a break from what was happening outside the Fellowship, and on the other hand have deep and thoughtful discussions on how we could address the challenges facing our democracy and build the future together."

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