Students at Lincoln East High School have decided to take action in their community by establishing the school’s newest after-school organization: the Civic Engagement Club. Every Wednesday, members meet as a student body to discuss current events and advocate for changes they wish to see in society.
Lincoln East’s Civic Engagement Club combines discussion and community service in order to coordinate group volunteering opportunities and select specific goals to focus their efforts on. Separated by semester, the first half of meetings prioritize respectful argument and social outreach, and the second half consolidates the group’s efforts into tackling one overarching local issue. Besides its mission, the Civic Engagement Club is unique in that instead of being structured as an executive hierarchy with one president, vice-president, and numerous officers, this club is run by student board members. These board members are typically the leaders who initiate discussion, organize meetings, and arrange engagement opportunities outside the classroom.
Lincoln East junior Konnor Garrett is widely regarded as the club’s founder. Garrett, a member of Key Club, DECA, and Debate, noticed Lincoln East lacked a space for students to respectfully discuss national affairs amongst themselves and took matters into his own hands. Henceforth, he and a few peers consolidated their efforts to form an organization focused on discussing political and societal issues sweeping across the country – the Civic Engagement Club.
“The significance of the ‘Civic Engagement Club’ is that engagement can have a lot of different meanings, because in our meetings, we engage with each other, discussing current events and our values,” Garrett said. “We also want to engage in our community through community service and advocacy initiatives.”
Within Lincoln East, Garrett hopes his club can promote understanding of the issues it discusses, as current political and social situations affect all American citizens, including students. Outside of the classroom, he hopes he and his club members could accomplish levels of change above just high school, perhaps reaching out to state lawmakers or local government bureaus and make a difference in their community.
“We’re planning on doing some community service programs. We’ve talked amongst our current leadership and have come up with a lot of great ideas,” Garrett said optimistically, excited to make an impact on his surroundings. “With the advocacy, that’s a pivot we’ll do a little bit later because we’re planning on reaching out to state lawmakers primarily. We’d like to focus on one event and how it impacts what we can do for our community.”
Garrett encourages people to attend meetings, even if they don’t fully understand everything happening in the world at this time. Promoting inclusion, compassion, and equity, The Civic Engagement club fosters respectful discussions where members can agree and disagree freely, with the hope of furthering everyone’s understanding.
Additionally, Lincoln East clubs must be sponsored by a teacher who is willing to donate their time, resources, and classroom space to their cause. Garrett, along with two other founding members Grayson Gemmell and Ryland Martin, approached English teacher Stephen Swinehart with their proposal of beginning a new after-school organization prioritizing the exchange of complex ideas in a civil manner.
“The norms are critical thinking, and a respectful way to discuss, and also practical involvement,” Swinehart said, describing the core values of the Civic Engagement Club. “So the way I see this is, you know, my job is pretty much to encourage healthy discourse, and you know and also healthy initiatives to try and steer (discussions) in that direction.”
Swinehart, who has taught at Lincoln East for 27 years, interacts with teenage students every day and finds their desire to educate themselves about the current national and global affairs. As a teacher, Swinehart perceives great value in such education, as knowledgeable citizens make for healthy societies.
“It’s rewarding to know that the younger generation really wants to get involved,” Swinehart said. “For me, it’s encouraging because I’m all about the healthy citizen. I mean, we become stronger when we become educated, you have more options. I don’t like to see any potentiality snuffed out. It’s lessening the community.”
Student-led and with involvement at its forefront, the Civic Engagement Club stands out from every other high-school organization thanks to its principles and leadership. Should any students be interested in voicing their opinions in a respectful way or getting involved in their community, the Civic Engagement Club meets after school every Wednesday in Mr. Swinehart’s classroom, room 024.
