New York, NY – Project Pericles is proud to announce a new cohort of Pericles Civic Fellows representing 20 campuses across the country. This new national initiative supports faculty, staff, and other campus leaders to develop, pilot, and strengthen initiatives that cultivate students’ civic identity, agency, and participation throughout the 2026–2027 academic year.
The Fellowship provides $3,000 to support projects and is a catalytic opportunity to test or expand civic and community-engaged learning initiatives within institutional structures over time. Fellows participate in a year-long community of practice that includes virtual convenings, peer learning, reflective assessment, and support from Project Pericles staff. In addition to funding, Fellows will contribute to a growing resource-sharing ecosystem through reflective artifacts such as syllabi, memos, frameworks, and toolkits that will help other institutions strengthen civic learning on their campuses.
The Fellowship expands Project Pericles’ longstanding commitment to placing civic engagement at the heart of higher education by extending opportunities beyond the Periclean consortium to institutions across the country.
“Faculty and staff are vital players in activating vibrant civic learning for students, but too often lack the time and support to build it well,” said Sanda Balaban, Executive Director of Project Pericles. “This fellowship provides promising practitioners with funding and, equally importantly, a talented community of peers to bolster their work. A healthy democracy depends on students leaving college motivated and equipped to take action on what they care about.”
Recipients:
- Eve Bratman, Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania): “Embedding Community Based Learning through Assessment and Alignment F&M.”
- Allie Barringer, Augustana College (Rock Island, Illinois): “Becoming Neighbors: Civic Learning and Ethical Community Engagement.”
- Sarah Coykendall, Kean University (Union, New Jersey): “Voices for Change: A Student Webinar Series on Voting, Sustainability, and Civic Action.”
- Kate Destler, Western Washington University (Bellingham, Washington): “Civic Thought & Deliberation Course and Community-Wide Deliberative Forum.”
- Melissa Gamble, Columbia College Chicago (Chicago, Illinois): “Politics, Civics, and Identity.”
- Angela Graves, SUNY Alfred State College of Technology (Alfred, New York): “Applied Civics: A Curriculum for Teaching Community and Professional Standards in Tech and Trades Programs.”
- Wing Shan Ho and Leslie Wilson, Montclair State University (Montclair, New Jersey): “Voices of Montclair’s AAPI Community: An Oral History Project.”
- Laurie Lewis, University of Texas San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas): “Dialogue Ambassadors Project.”
- Sylvia Lopez and Suzanne Goebel, Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin): “Impact Beloit Community Fellowship.”
- Ed Madison, University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon): “I Vote Because…”: A Student-Led Civic Storytelling Initiative.”
- Nora McCook, Bloomfield College of Montclair State University (Bloomfield, New Jersey): “Archive as Advocacy Course: The PBI Project Digital Archive Launch.”
- Katarina Moyon, Winthrop University (Rock Hill, South Carolina): “Infusing Civic Participation Across the Curriculum.”
- Katie Montgomery, Cuyahoga Community College (Cleveland, Ohio): “The Voting Experience at Tri-C.”
- Chapman Rackaway, Radford University (Radford, Virginia): “From Polling Place to Policy: A Voting Rights and Civic Participation Module for American Government.”
- Lisa M. Rafanelli, Manhattanville University (Purchase, New York): “Dialogue Across Difference: A Cohort Model for Civic Learning in the First-Year Seminar.”
- Cara Scharf, Drexel University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania): “Our World, Our City, Ourselves.”
- Chris Rzigalinski and Madison Goldman, Austin Community College (Austin, Texas): “Common Ground.”
- Heather Plumridge and Samantha Ha-DiMuzio, Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pennsylvania): “Data center civic action: Building pedagogical models for public storytelling.”
- Allison Walker, Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, North Carolina): “The Work Belongs in Public: Civic Scholarship, Community Partnership, and the Promise of Pro Humanitate.”
- Amy Zsohar, Inver Hills Community College (Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota): “Interpersonal Communication World Cafes.”
About Project Pericles
Project Pericles is a higher education nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing civic learning to the heart of higher education. Through curricular innovation, faculty leadership, and community-engaged learning, Project Pericles works to make democratic engagement a core component of undergraduate education.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Harry Patton Hou
Program Manager