The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. The foundation seeks to identify and address the challenges to making democracy work as it should through interrelated program areas that focus on citizens, communities, and institutions. Each issue of this annual newsletter…

This essay outlines a unique program developed at Davis & Elkins College: the First Year Symposium. Responding to concerns about the lack of civic engagement in America's youth and the call for colleges and universities to develop strategic plans for addressing democratic learning, the First Year Symposium is a required class for all…

This article presents three cases of community-engaged, or "public," scholarship across diverse disciplines (social science, natural science, and health science) in which the rigid boundaries of what has been conceived as traditional service-learning have been blurred. The innovations represented within these cases explicitly address…

This paper examines a burgeoning network of organizations that is inventing new forms of community renewal and citizenship education. Their names vary--some call themselves public policy institutes, others centers for civic life--yet they share a common methodology, one aimed at tackling tough public issues, strengthening communities, and…