This study aims to understand better how undergraduate students become civically engaged graduates. Three Pennsylvania-based institutions were identified to be the focus of this research. These institutions each have less than 5,000 undergraduate students, are part of a small city with under 100,000 residents, and have a civic-engagement component to their mission and/or guiding documents. A qualitative analysis, including 19 graduate interviews and 15 educator interviews, yielded specific practices that graduates felt impacted their desire to become civically engaged alumni. Additionally, this study attempted to understand better how alumni of these institutions demonstrate their desire to be civically engaged as graduates and the impact of the college and community relationships in this size community on their ability to learn about and get involved in civic-engagement activities while in college. Based on interviews with the graduates, high-impact practices such as internships, service-learning, global learning, and intentional dialogues were some of the most impactful. That said, nearly every student identified developing relationships with faculty members and administrators as one of the most important components of their desire to be civically engaged and participate in the opportunities available. Additionally, graduates and educators identified the connection between the community's size and the institution's size as impactful to their ability to form relationships and gain experiences that encourage civic engagement. This study has implications for similarly situated institutions and potentially those outside of this scope as well. It identified areas where institutions that name civic engagement as an important component of their education can focus their resources to provide opportunities for students to develop a passion and lifelong interest in being civically engaged. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]