At Grinnell, students can explore various ways to positively impact their communities—personally, professionally, and civically. Housed in the Center for Careers, Life, and Service (CLS), the Civic Education and Innovation (CEI) team works with campus and community partners to provide students with community-engaged learning opportunities that help them become thoughtful, active participants in civic life. Through real-world collaboration and continual reflection, students connect their values, identities, and academic interests to meaningful civic action. CEI supports students in seeing their individual efforts as part of broader movements for systemic change, cultivating a lifelong commitment to civic collaboration and community wellbeing.
Civic Activity at Grinnell
At the CLS, we believe civic responsibility starts with how we live and work together—whether it’s in our residential halls, on campus, or in our local communities and beyond. Partnering with others across the College, we offer opportunities to help you develop the mindset, knowledge, and skills needed to become an active, equity-minded civic leader in any community you’re part of. We’re here to inspire meaningful action and positive change, no matter where you are.
Opportunities for Civic Learning abound at Grinnell! Do you want to:
- Join us on a local “Social Justice Tour” to learn more about our local community’s needs and innovative change-making?
- Volunteer with a local organization?
- Take a community engaged class?
- Collaborate with a community partner on an on-going service project?
- Participate in or lead a community dialogue?
- Take part in a workshop with our Social Innovator in Residence?
- Apply for a Service Leadership Work-Study position?
- Learn to diagram the systemic underpinnings of an entrenched social or environmental issue?
- Help your peers register to vote?
- Collaborate with local activists? or
- Lead or explore your own distinctive initiative?
You don’t have to do it all, you only need to do what is right for you, right now.
Click on a button above or meet with one of our staff members to learn more about who we are and how we can help you hone your civic aspirations.
News & Advice
By Tim Schmitt, Sep 29, 2025
When Tristan Davis ’25 first visited Grinnell College, it was the small classes and close faculty relationships that drew him in. But what he found in his four years as a student extended well …
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2025 Program Overview
Location: Grinnell, Iowa
Program Type: Volunteer / Community-Engaged Civic & Professional Learning
Duration: May 27 – August 1, 2025
Number of Positions: 3
Program Description
The Grinnell Summer of Service is a 10-week, cohort-based, immersive civic and professional learning program that …
Grinnell College, April 29, 2025
Tanner Alger ’25 is currently working with the College’s inaugural Social Innovator in Residence, Monica Sanders and members of the greater Grinnell Community on a project that seeks to better map digital access disparities in …
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