CEP - Civic Engagement Program

03/23/2020

Northeastern graduate Tavish Fenbert spent more than a year in Senegal with the Peace Corps, working to protect the country’s natural landscape.

07/01/2019

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING POST REGARDING THE STATUS OF THE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM (CEP)

In 2008, the Civic Engagement Program (CEP) started with 84 students and a goal of ensuring that students who were awarded Northeastern’s most prestigious scholars were also tasked with contributing to the communities they would be a part of during their time as a student. Over the last 11 years, CEP has engaged more than 1,500 students in well over 1 million hours of service and civic engagement. Beyond the numbers, graduating students have shared the many positives associated with the program: feeling integrated into the Boston community, building co-op/professional connections, being grateful for the opportunities outside of classes, service impacting their career trajectory and many more. The ultimate goal of the program has always been to develop civic-minded individuals who will use their time and talent to contribute to the communities they will live in throughout their lives.

In 2016, Northeastern made changes to scholarships that impacted CEP. They restructured scholarship funds and removed the CEP requirement for the National Achievement, National Hispanic and National Merit scholars. Fall 2016 also saw the final class of incoming University Scholars (NUSP). Because so many local community organizations relied on first-year CEP students as committed year-long volunteers, our Center had to innovate to respond to this need.

In the fall of 2017, the Center of Community Service launched the Northeastern University Alliance of Civically Engaged Students (NU|ACES), an opt-in program for students to participate in a fun and intensive team-based Welcome Week in August, and then commit to weekly service for the entire year. NU|ACES has experienced huge success in the first two years, engaged more than 220 students, with 82% of the fall 2017 group recommitting for a second year. Community partners and participants alike have reported high levels of satisfaction, and early data shows positive learning and impact on all stakeholders. In the upcoming year, we are growing the program to offer more spaces to incoming students, and are introducing ways for upper-class students to join the alliance.

While the NU|ACES program grows and flourishes, CEP has been slowly phasing out with each graduating class. In the last two years, our office has received pushback from several departments in allowing student scholarships to be impacted by their performance within CEP. As a result, it has become increasingly challenging to hold all students to the same standards originally set forth by the university. While our ultimate goal is that all the students currently in CEP have developed a passion and desire to contribute to their communities in a myriad of ways, we have made the decision to remove the CEP hours requirement for the remaining two CEP classes. This decision is effective beginning Monday, July 1st, 2019.

We wholeheartedly believe that college is a time for students to develop and hone their civic knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors. Thank you to all of the current and former CEP students for their years of service to our local and global communities and we hope that you will continue your civic engagement well beyond your time at Northeastern.

-The CEP Team

Northeastern Center of Community Service; ACES - Northeastern University Alliance of Civically Engaged Students

06/21/2019

Are you looking for further opportunities to engage with Boston & contribute to the greater good? Boston Medical Reserve Corps is offering an orientation for interested parties to join the MRC on Monday, June 24th from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the DelValle Institute for Emergency Preparedness. If you would like to partake in this training, register at delvalle.bphc.org/mrc_dbh!

06/18/2019

Have you recently graduated from NU as a CEP student? If you are looking to continue your civic engagement, consider joining the The Massachusetts Promise Fellowship!!

06/17/2019

Hi all,

This post serves as a heads-up to any person looking to either volunteer and/or attend Northeastern Crossing's Block Party event. As indicated in the poster below, the event has been postponed to a later date due to rainy conditions both tomorrow and Wednesday (the initial rain date). We will provide you details on the new date, time, and rain date of the event in the near future.

We apologize for any inconveniences.

06/07/2019

Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly Boston (LBFE) is an international, non-profit, volunteer-based organization committed to relieving isolation and loneliness among the elderly. Students will serve as Activity Assistants and help implement a weekly activities program for elders. This is an opportunity for creative, outgoing and self-motivated students to have a direct effect on the lives of older adults who are lonely and isolated, build meaningful relationships with elders and help LBFE shape our CitySites Program. Bilingual students are particularly encouraged to apply, especially those speaking or studying Spanish, Russian or Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese)

Learn more about their organization at: https://www.littlebrothersboston.org/. If interested in volunteering with them, please email Stephenie Hou (Intergenerational Program Manager) at [email protected]. You are free to also use her as a point-of-contact for hours' verification.

LBFE Boston's social, tech, and arts programs alleviate social isolation and loneliness and help low-income older adults age in community.

06/05/2019

Our Center's sister site at 172 Curry Student Center is also looking for a co-op for the Fall/Summer II 2019 term. If you or anyone else are still looking for a co-op position, consider applying for this position on NUCareers!

06/04/2019

Are you or someone you know still looking for a co-op for Summer II/Fall 2019? Our friends at Northeastern Crossing are looking for a Program Assistant for the upcoming co-op term. For more information and/or to apply, go to NUCareers and search for Job ID 1871596.

06/04/2019

Codman Academy Charter Public School is seeking tutors for its Summer School program to provide individualized instruction to high school students. Their program runs July 1 to July 25, Monday through Thursday, from 8:45 am to 12:15 pm for Humanities/Spanish instruction, and 12:45 pm to 4:15 pm for Math/Biology/Chemistry/Physics instruction. Materials are provided on-site, and volunteers receive a complimentary Charlie Card to cover travel to and from the school!

Please contact Sahar Hakim at [email protected] for more information and to apply to a specific instruction program!

06/03/2019

In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, Scout uses a human-centered design process to research pressing civic issues in our city and prototype creative solutions. These semester-long projects are taken on by a team of interdisciplinary students who build connections and co-create possible solutions with the people of Boston.

The Scout Labs’ Process
1. Empathize: So how do we start? We observe, engage, and immerse ourselves in the project challenge by conducting interviews and observing people’s behavior in the context of our challenge. The team also talks to field experts and conducts academic research to understand the existing body of knowledge in the field.

2. Define: Here, we take all our insights and synthesize them to define the core problem. We want to frame this problem statement clearly, as it will guide the rest of our design process.

3. Ideate: At this step, the team takes this newly defined point of view and begins to brainstorm ideas. We encourage free and open thinking during this phase, and utilize a variety of techniques to push ourselves to think outside of the box.

4. Prototype: This is where our ideas take form. We construct rapid prototypes, or scaled-down versions of our solutions, to allow our team to experiment with our most promising ideas from the previous phase.

5. Test: Time to put our work out there! We iteratively user test the prototypes with members of the larger community. Feedback gained during this phase allows us to refine our prototypes and develop a final solution.

They’re seeking an enthusiastic team of designers, developers, and creative thinkers in all fields of study to prototype interdisciplinary solutions for social good. Interested in joining? The link to apply is here: https://bit.ly/2VSTT5P. The deadline to apply is Friday, July 5th. For more information, contact Tia Thomson at [email protected].

05/29/2019

The Fenway Alliance, Fenway CDC, and Fenway Civic Association are hosting the second annual Fenway Porchfest! Fenway Porchfest is a grassroots music festival highlighting local musicians at host locations throughout the Fenway area. This year, they are in need of host location volunteers for each of our music locations. Volunteers will be expected to help performances run smoothly, helping communicate musician needs to event organizers and oversee the performances.

Volunteer training will be held the morning of the event. Coffee and lunch (from Cava) will be provided.
For more information, contact either [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].