Texas A&M Citizenship And Service Initiative To Shape Next Generation Of Civic Leaders

Texas A&M University, renowned for impacting communities of all sizes and sending civic-minded former students into the world, recently made tremendous progress toward advancing a new Citizenship and Service Initiative.

Designed to cultivate a new generation of responsible, engaged citizens, the initiative will provide Texas A&M students with education, reflection, and service opportunities to engage with citizenship at the local, state and national level. University President Gen. (Ret.) Mark A. Welsh III introduced the Citizenship and Service Initiative in fall ’24, and a committee led by Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Kim Field has helped to develop a conceptual framework and illustrative ideas for the initiative that was refined and built upon during an internal summit for faculty, staff and students held last week.

“Our state, country and world need Aggies more than ever,” said Welsh in his opening remarks. “It’s important to remind our current Aggies the honor code isn’t just about following an honor code, it’s about living a life of honor. Selfless service isn’t about one service project, it’s about living a life of service. Respect is about living a respected, respectful life when you leave Texas A&M. And, all of that is about citizenship — something I believe this great educational institution should be teaching our remarkable students.”

Earlier in the month, Field and Welsh presented the concept framework to The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, which provided input and expressed support for the concept.

The initiative is built around the idea that all students will deliberately engage across four pillars — character, knowledge, skills and civic engagement. All who graduate from Texas A&M University will, through instruction, high impact experiences, and leadership opportunities, be ready and willing to serve as ethical, informed, equipped and contributing citizens of their communities, state of Texas and the United States.

The summit included speakers and panel discussions with students, faculty and staff talking about the framework as well as existing programs, opportunities and challenges. During interactive sessions, attendees helped shape ideas that will be used to develop a comprehensive implementation plan.

“Throughout the summit, we had incredible engagement from faculty, staff and students, thinking through how we can make this concept an intentional part of our students’ educational experience,” said Field whose own experience in public service is extensive. “One sentiment rang clear through the event, ‘as Aggies, whatever our country needs, you can count on us.’”

The initiative will draw on a wealth of existing resources and activities at the university, including government internship programs, community engagement-focused activities and a variety of government, ethics, leadership and civic education offerings by Texas A&M’s schools and colleges. Additional components to connect, strengthen and augment existing activities will be developed.

“We’ve been graduating great Aggies and citizens for 148 years, but we can do better,” Welsh said during the all-day summit, which had about 100 attendees. “The good news is we’re not starting from scratch. Academic courses and leadership opportunities abound, and we have great faculty and staff guiding students through all those experiences. We have students serving all day, every day. The question now is: How do we connect all those dots in a way that gives our students credit and inspires more of then to become a part of it?”

Field expects to develop a plan this spring to share with leadership and begin moving forward.