Where Your Passion Meets Action
Citizenship and Civic Engagement Major
Citizenship and civic engagement (CCE) is a nationally unique double major program that enables students to contribute to the public good while preparing for careers in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
Program Overview
What societal issues or concerns inspire you to take action? Where do you want to make a difference? From the moment you enter the major, CCE’s faculty and professional advising staff will help you tailor a program to your specific goals.
With guidance from your advisors, you will choose courses and projects that support the development of your senior action plan for improving the community. CCE courses are offered every semester, providing you the flexibility to study abroad or spend a semester in Washington, D.C. Over 60% of CCE students spend at least one semester off campus.
CCE students choose a second major, combining areas of academic interest.
Requirements
For complete degree requirements, please visit the Course Catalog.
Core Requirements
Eight required courses (24 credits) explore important topics such as deliberative citizenship, community engagement, social movements, leadership, data-driven research, policy analysis, conflict management, public affairs, and nonprofit management.
Connective Coursework (Electives)
Ethics, Justice and Citizenship
Delivered as a seminar for CCE majors only, this course takes a deep dive into three aspects of civic life: 1) civic agency and the co-creation of the commons, 2) theoretical and practical approaches to deliberative and participatory citizenship within democracies, and 3) social activism and social movements across the ideological spectrum.
Community Placement
Completed concurrently with Ethics, Justice and Citizenship coursework, students spend eight to ten hours per week at a community placement of their choice and attending periodic seminar meetings. Students learn organizational dynamics, including the challenges of nonprofit funding, public budgeting, volunteer management, community relations and leadership during times of crisis.
Research Seminar
In their junior year, CCE students develop a research question that addresses a social issue or community challenge; then, study past interventions to help inform and shape future action. Students create and give a presentation of their findings at the end of the semester.
Action Plan Workshop
MAX Courses
While students can choose electives and courses from across Syracuse University, many of CCE’s foundational courses are MAX courses. Popular among students for more than two decades, MAX courses are taught by teams of social science faculty to explore citizenship and current issues in public and international affairs. Please visit the course catalogue for complete requirements and course lists.
Critical Issues for the United States
Explore perspectives of the meaning of the American dream, its past and its future, through the lens of social science disciplines, taught by teams of Maxwell's renowned faculty.
Global Community
Learn dynamics of worldwide society and its cultures, global economy and political order. Explore tensions within these realms, and attempts by different communities to either participate in or to hold themselves aloof from “global culture.”
Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences (MAX 201)
Develop skills necessary to analyze data and evaluate research including research design, sampling design, descriptive and inferential statistics, data sources for social science, constructing data sets, reading and constructing tables and charts.
I am Maxwell.
I wanted to find a way to use the academic disciplines I was learning to make a positive impact on my community. CCE gave me that unique, hands-on experience that I would not have found solely in my other majors.”
Emerson Womble ’20
B.A., citizenship and civic engagement, economics, political science