Student Opportunities
Teacher Support in Pedagogical Practices
We believe that civic education cannot be confined to a classroom. It must engage the real, emerging, and critical issues of our time and of our communities in our communities. PDC offers a range of learning opportunities for students to practice democracy in authentic contexts and environments.
Model UN Conference:
Students attend a conference simulation representing a country on a United Nations committee. Delegates engage in debates and discussions on complex global issues seeking to find solutions and gain a better understanding of international relations and the workings of the UN.
Immersive Museum Experiences:
PDC partners with seven museums in Chicago to create civic learning experiences for students. Museum visits allow students to explore the connection between social identity and civic identity and connect classroom curriculum with museum artifacts in order to foster a deeper understanding of self, others, and civic identity development. Experiences at museums promote active citizenship by exposing participants to diverse perspectives, cultures, and social issues and actions. Partners include The Chicago History Museum, DuSable Museum of African American History, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, National Museum of Mexican Art, Jane Addams Hull House Museum, Pullman National Park, and the American Writers Museum.
Meetings with Elected Officials:
Engaging with local officials is a critical experience for students to actively participate in civic life by articulating their policy and legislative ideas, understand governance at multiple levels, and get used to meeting with powerful people. Students prepare for these meetings through research and preparatory simulations. Students then have the chance to share ideas with partnering local officials at city, state, and federal levels.
Elect 2024 Simulation:
A simulation designed to help students understand how the election process works in the United States. Students simulating political parties and their candidates are tasked with communicating the vision and platform of a political party so that the student electorate is well-informed as they go to vote for their preferred candidate. All students learn about the issues, how to communicate about the issues, the electoral process, and how to discern from among a marketplace of political ideas.
Dialogue!:
Dialogue is a program of the Lebanese American University (LAU) in collaboration with Loyola University Chicago (LUC) with support from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. High school students from Lebanon and Chicago explore critical social issues and the principles and ideas that underpin a just and equitable society. Topics include educational inequity, influence of media, and government policy making.
Student Voice Committees:
Students gather in their schools to identify issues and strategies that strengthen school climates for learning. Students work in close collaboration with their principals to propose and work together toward policy change.
Summer Civic Leadership Internship:
20 students from PDC schools are placed with local civic and community organizations to support organizing, service, and community development strategies of partner organizations. Students work in a variety of capacities at their host organization and participate in weekly learning sessions with PDC facilitators.