When Project Pericles launched in 2001, each member institution committed to a shared mission without a shared model. There were no hallmark programs, no shared curriculum, and no established playbook. Each Periclean institution defined its own program—by design. Project Pericles founder Eugene Lang called this the “evergreen” approach: not a one-time initiative, but a permanent part of how each institution operates that “identifies, aggregates, and builds on socially oriented projects and studies in which students and others are already actively engaged.”¹
In Lang’s vision, each Program would vary based on the institution’s unique characteristics. Yet despite those differences, all programs were institutionally driven and provided students with socially oriented learning experiences as core components of their education. These experiences spanned three domains: the classroom, campus, and community. Each program was led by a Program Director who reported directly to their institution’s President. That direct line to presidential leadership remains a defining feature of the Periclean model today
In 2006, these early Program Directors were conducting a shared experiment, feeling their way towards what institutional civic education could look like.
Shaping Campuses’ Civic Infrastructure and Culture
Over the first five years of Project Pericles’ founding, Periclean institutions made meaningful commitments to building on and strengthening community-engaged civic learning on their campuses. The range was wide, from weekly civic forums to the institutionalization of new Centers for Community and Civic Engagement with dedicated staff and faculty.
Swarthmore College demonstrated its commitment to civic learning through two structural pillars: the Eugene M. Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility and the Project Pericles Fund of Swarthmore College, a Board member-created endowment specifically to fund student initiatives addressing societal challenges.
The Project Pericles Fund initially supported four student group projects: Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) R Us, Swarthmore-Sudan, Common Ground Solidarity Network (CGSN), and War News Radio (WNR)— the latter of which continues to fill gaps in traditional media coverage of war and politics by offering personal, historical, and balanced perspectives today.
“Project Pericles at Swarthmore College has helped us think more seriously about how student-led initiatives can create change right now. It shows that when academic work is connected to social action, students are better able to respond to real needs and grow into engaged, responsible citizens.”
– Jennifer Magee, Swarthmore College Program Director
Allegheny College created an Institute for Civic Engagement (now the Center for Community Engagement) as a central hub with a Coordinating Council that brought previously siloed units under one umbrella: the Center for Political Participation, community service, service-learning, the Writing program, and the Values, Ethics, and Social Action academic minor. Allegheny also launched an annual census of faculty, administration, and students involved in civic engagement–one of the earliest formal assessment mechanisms in the network.
These campuses shared a conviction that civic engagement couldn’t live at the margins. It had to be built into the institution’s core commitments.
The Classroom as a Civic Space
Mr. Lang described faculty as having “a seminal role” in early Periclean progress. In 2004, Project Pericles launched a challenge grant program to further stimulate faculty innovation. These competitive stipends supported faculty across all disciplines in designing and testing “civic engagement courses” (CECs) that connected academic content to social concerns. In addition to these CECs, Periclean institutions created dynamic, curricular programs.
Ursinus College ensured that every student would encounter the Periclean mission by establishing the “Common Intellectual Experience,” a required two-semester first-year seminar in which students explore fundamental human questions and develop informed opinions.
“Since its inception over 25 years ago, the Common Intellectual Experience has challenged Ursinus students to think critically about life’s big questions. Students have read texts spanning from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, in an effort to understand the most enduring challenges of the human experience. They have also been challenged to become engaged with contemporary concerns, as they ask themselves—after introspective reflection and deep conversations with their peers—what should really matter to them.”
– Kelly Sorensen, Ursinus College Program Director
Elon University created the Periclean Scholars program, selecting a cohort of sophomores to take classes together over the next three years and to dedicate themselves to a chosen global social concern through coursework, community-based research, and service. Elon’s first cohort, the Class of 2006, spent two years studying AIDS in Namibia, including a faculty-accompanied research trip, before producing a documentary shown to Elon students and local K–12 children. The program has already planned focus areas and faculty mentors through 2034.
These programs continue to be curricular commitments embedded within the institution about what an undergraduate education should address.
Creating Meaningful Community Partnerships
Mr. Lang was explicit that Programs must “go beyond conventional volunteer services.” Community engagement had to be connected to genuine civic learning, political understanding, and accountability to community partners. The early community programs are where this principle was most visible in practice.
Pace University instituted the Project Pericles Leadership Program in Service and Citizenship to nurture student leadership skills through civic participation, community action, and advocacy for social change. Experts in community organizing and politics served as mentors to the participants.
“Pace was reeling from the impact of 9/11 on the campus and our future. Selection as one of the founding campuses of Project Pericles inspired our faculty to respond with innovation and collaboration rather than fear and isolation. We were not a small liberal arts school, but our differences were welcome. We became part of a conversation and community larger than any one institution.”
– Heather Novak, Pace University Program Director
Today, Pace’s work has evolved into a Civic Engagement and Public Values core curriculum requirement for all undergraduates. Informed by Project Pericles’ expansion of service learning to civic engagement, the curriculum focuses on active community participation, social responsibility, and real-world experience. Pace began with six service learning courses and now runs 100 sections per year.
At Occidental College, several Spanish Department classes in the spring of 2003 replaced the language lab with tutoring and mentoring activities for children from Toland Way Elementary School. By the spring of 2005, Spanish had become the first department to integrate Community-Based Learning (CBL) into most of its classes. Today, Occidental College has a robust Center for Community-Based Learning that has expanded CBL into many departments and disciplines across the institution.
What connected these partnerships was accountability—to students, to community partners, and to the democratic purpose Mr. Lang established for Project Pericles.
The Next Evolution of the Pericles Program
Over the past two decades, these early programs have evolved, grown, changed names and leadership, and, in some cases, ended. What has stayed the same is the mission behind the work, led by dedicated Program Directors who bring it to life on their campuses.
In our 25th year, we are returning to Lang’s vision of the Periclean Program—the kind of work that changes how higher educational institutions understand their purpose. One manifestation of this is our new Catalyst Grants program, which supports systems‑level initiatives that embed community‑engaged civic learning into institutional structures— the permanent, structural change that the early Program Directors were building toward. The early Pericleans laid a foundation that the next generation of Periclean Programs is building on.
This is the second article in our Impact25 series, commemorating Project Pericles’ 25th anniversary. Read the first article, “The Project Pericles Origin Story: A Daring Work in Progress.”
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¹ Lang E. 2005. Project Pericles: A Daring Work in Progress. National Civic Review 94: 10-8