Civic Engagement

FINAL PAPER

I would like to choose response 2: International Response to Civic engagement. Being an international student, I believe there are a a lot of ways as to how United States and India’s civic engagement is different from one another. Civic engagement is a major part of a student’s life as students who participate in community service substantially increase their academic progress, gain life skills, and develop a feeling of responsibility for their community and society. Participation in community service when people are young helps them construct an image of themselves as adults who are responsible for sustaining their community’s well being and who are able to take effective action.  Civic engagement in India means helping the poor and the people who are in need financially but in the United States, civic engagement means helping any person who needs help. I myself was involved in a lot of activities back in India that included going to old age home, orphanage, giving blankets to the homeless people in winters. When comparing all these with modar patshala i.e. My service site, I believe more than helping people who are financially instable, it is all about people who wants to seek help from other like I am going to modar patshala, that is a place where we help students who wants to learn and study and help them complete their homework. Both are correct in their respective ways.

Service and civic learning improve students’ ability to apply learning in “the real world” and have a positive impact on complexity of understanding, problem analysis, critical thinking, and cognitive development. 

Combining students’ academic coursework with opportunities for authentic (“relevant”) experience enhances both their academic development as well as their readiness to take up their responsibilities as adult members of a democracy.  Academically, they demonstrate significant improvement in several areas. This is why I believe civic engagement is so important. In india, even if you do civic engagement and all kinds of community service, you do not get any credits or appreciation for the same and thus many people or students believe it as a waste of time where as in the United States people especially students are encouraged to go for such a community service and help people. The colleges by keeping required classes like civic engagement makes all the students experience the happiness they receive by helping others and thus most of the students continue to do community service and help people. At this age it is all about learning and knowing the right things and developing habits to shape yourself into a better person who can bring in positivity and fight for the right cause and be good from within. This civic engagement program should definitely be there as a necessary tool in college life as it teaches us the right attitude towards social work. United States especially Drexel helps their students learn the right things and the right path where as in India no college or University will make the initiation for their students to do community service. I would definitely agree on civic being an integral part of Drexel University. As college student definitely tend to absorb and use the knowledge that they have gained in college after they move out in the real world, so shaping the youth in the right direction is the right step to bring a positive change in society. Teachings in class are really important as that will be knowledgeable and will also act as motivators to help us bring a change in the society. Civic engagement has been an integral part of my life, be it in India or United States and I believe Indian Universities and offices need to work on bringing the importance of Civic engagement. United States have a very nice and important culture of helping other’s especially Drexel. Even though I have worked with a lot of community service