Director David Hoffman, Musa Jafri ‘24, in Maryland Matters

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 09:19:22 -0400
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Center for Democracy and Civic Life director, Dr. David Hoffman, Ph.D. '13, and Musa Jafri '24, former SGA president, wrote, “UMBC students learn hopeful civics lessons from empowering experiences,” published on June 19 in Maryland Matters.

Hoffman and Musa share, “The civics lessons implicit in news coverage and social media posts relating to the 2024 election, the conflict in Israel and Gaza, crime and safety, and other pressing issues are clear. They suggest that the role of a good citizen is to choose sides and speak out, knowing that an election might empower one’s enemies, and that silence might mean complicity. The civic environment driven by our feeds is full of fury and alarm. Yet it is helpful to remember that there can be more to civic life than raised voices. If we are to build a thriving democratic society, it is especially important for young people to discover that in addition to voting and speaking out, they can work across differences in perspectives and roles to make meaningful changes in their communities.”

They describe how the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, “works with UMBC students to establish that experience: the authentic connections, mutual power, and individual and collective agency achieved in the process of promoting and enacting change on campus and beyond.” Through the Center, students have participated in leadership development programs and learned how to build long-term collective civic action to address disparities, while helping to create opportunities and spaces for dialogue on campus and leading educational programming and events around civic engagement, among other initiatives. Many of those who participated in the Center’s, and other UMBC programs, are now alumni leading community centers at area colleges and universities, as well as organizations and initiatives in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors.