Welcome

Welcome to the Center for Civics Education at Concordia University Irvine. The Center’s mission is to train and develop citizens and leaders to effectively engage in public policy decision-making through seminars, workshops, dialogues, debates, internship programs and collaboration with business, civic, philanthropic, government, political, ethnic and religious organizations and institutions.

The Center focuses specifically on developing wise, honorable and cultivated citizens and servant leaders for active participation in the public arena based on principles of civility, individual liberty and responsibility, the common good and representative government.

The Center is non-partisan and welcomes discussions and debates based on the principles underlying “marketplace of ideas,” including civility, mutual respect and informed participation.

About

The Center serves both students and the greater community by providing programs and activities designed to inform, inspire, enlighten and engage its participants in the structure and processes of American government, the essential elements of citizenship and effective involvement in the public-policy process. Center events include:

• United We Stand: Civility, Citizenship and the Constitution – a community-based project designed to raise the levels of civility and civic literacy in Orange County and create a model for other communities to achieve these goals
• Becoming America: How we Gained and Secured Freedom and Self-Government – a three-part series (eighteen lectures) focusing on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in collaboration with the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
• Annual Constitution Day Program on the CUI campus
• Concordia Conversations – Hosted dialogues with national and local leaders in government, politics and other areas of public policy; debates by candidates for federal and state offices during election seasons
• Internship opportunities for CUI students