Winthrop’s West Forum Receives Grant to Deepen Civic Engagement (07/01/26)

HIGHLIGHTS

• The grant will be used to deepen student civic engagement by more intentionally embedding civic learning in Winthrop's General Education Core courses and by working with Student Voting Ambassadors to get the word out about the fall midterm elections.
• Voting engagement efforts and programming also will take place this fall within the Athletics Department and the Department of Residence Life.

ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - The John C. West Forum on Politics and Policy at Winthrop University will receive a $3,000 Project Pericles Civic Fellowship grant to help strengthen democratic practices among students on campus.

The grant will be used to deepen student civic engagement by more intentionally embedding civic learning in Winthrop's General Education Core courses and by working with Student Voting Ambassadors to get the word out about the fall midterm elections. As many as six Student Voting Ambassadors will undergo training and will receive a small stipend through the grant for their work.

Tony Hobert, the assistant professor of Political Science, Philosophy, Religion and Legal Studies who directs the West Forum, said the grant allows General Education Core program directors to create a voting engagement opportunity in each of their four courses--ACAD 101, Writing 101, Human Experience 102, and Critical Reading, Thinking and Writing 201. Each will have access through the grant to a small stipend to use toward voter engagement.

Planning will begin in August, Hobert said.

Voting engagement efforts and programming also will take place this fall within the Athletics Department and the Department of Residence Life.

Funding for the Project Pericles Civic Fellowship grant comes from Project Pericles, the Mellon Foundation and the Eugene M. Lang Foundation.

For more information, contact Katarina Moyon at [email protected].