Interim dean of University College Bea Gonzalez traveled to Annapolis, Md. Tuesday to attend a University Continuing Education Association conference to receive an award for the college’s civic education program.

The program, Citizen’s Academy, is in its second year. The academy is a 10-week course that aims to help pupils better understand government on many levels, said Sandra Barrett, director of community programs at University College. University College and Forging Our Community’s United Strength Greater Syracuse partnered to bring this program to Onondaga County after hearing about citizen’s academies in other communities.

‘It’s nice to be recognized among colleagues,’ Barrett said. ‘Many public institutions have more of a public mandate. Syracuse University is a private institution doing the public service.’

Citizen’s Academy was submitted to UCEA’s Mid-Atlantic Region Awards Region in the category of non-credit programs, Barrett said.

F.O.C.U.S. Greater Syracuse focuses on community outreach, education and awareness. The group works with the government and citizens to make the community a better place, said F.O.C.U.S. Executive Director Charlotte Holstein.

This year’s program began on Sept. 13 and will run through Nov. 15, Barrett said. Sessions are held on Wednesday evenings and feature a variety of presentations by local government officials, such as the mayor of Syracuse and different commissioners. This year, town and village officials were also included in the class presentation roster.

Topics covered include budget and funding, health and safety, community development, school districts, law enforcement and even one session on culture and the arts. Some of the classes have taken students to places around the area, such as the wastewater treatment plant or the Justice Center, where the students ate the same dinner the prisoners had, said Holstein.

‘It’s not a structured course,’ Barrett said. ‘It is more of a series of conversations with the government officials that present.’

Many of the facilitators are graduates from last year’s program, such as fundraising consultant Linda Henley, who was on hand at a session that focused largely on budget and funding. Henley’s role was to come up with questions to ask to keep the participants motivated, but said she was pleased that the class members had many questions of their own already.

‘The program is a good way to find out who is actually running the government,’ Henley said. ‘It makes it easier to feel comfortable approaching government officials to get things done.’

The class is comprised of 35 community members, chosen from a large number of applications sent into the program.

Factors such as age, race and ethnicity were not considered, but the classes have ended up being comprised of a variety of people, Holstein said.

More men than women have been involved in the past two years, but Holstein said she hopes that will change in the future.

The final presentation will focus on how the participants feel about their role as citizens, Barrett said. After graduation, many students go on to do great things in their communities with the knowledge gained from Citizen’s Academy.

‘The benefits are so many,’ Holstein said. ‘Many citizens don’t know how the government works. Through this program, they are exposed to various city and county departments for a bird’s eye view of the government and who is doing what.’

Published on October 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm