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Lakeside with the Public Impact Retreat


During two brilliant, sunny days in August, the nascent Public Impact Initiative hosted an overnight retreat at the Lake Morey Inn in Fairlee, VT. The purpose and desired outcome for the retreat was to obtain focused student response to the concept, scope and content of the initiative. Students, faculty and administrators made up the group. After introductory perspectives offered by Linda Fowler, Director of the Rockefeller Center, and Jan Tarjan, Associate Dean at the Tucker Foundation, participants sat by the lake with assigned readings on civic engagement and higher education. Discussion ensued over dinner, followed by a "campus mapping" exercise in the evening. Participants located and listed all the places on campus they thought currently worked toward a positive public impact or toward civic and social responsibility. On Saturday morning, participants worked their way through a number of focus questions.

It was a highly enthusiastic group, full of forceful ideas. Articulating possible next steps was the most exciting part of the day. The students urged all the participants not to lose momentum, to involve faculty in focus groups and to bring more faculty onto the Public Impact Initiative committee. The students urged strong student representation and "voice" within the Initiative, and that it democratize its process throughout by enabling student leadership and lobbying in the Initiative. Students advocated for a strong statement of need and purpose, and that the word about a civic engagement movement be promoted vigorously, across all student groups. Embued with great entrepreneurial spirit, the tremendously creative students made specific suggestions for new programs.

Evaluating the retreat, one student expressed both the spirit and the hope of the Public Impact Initiative: " I was excited by the way important ideas were linked to concrete action, and the promotion of REAL change on campus."