In 2010, with generous support from the Eugene M. Lang Foundation and The Teagle Foundation, Project Pericles launched the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program™ in which faculty leaders on 26 campuses received matching grants to create new Civic Engagement Courses (CECs), organize campus-wide civic engagement activities, and serve as civic education advocates and leaders. Each Periclean Faculty Leader—selected from participating Periclean institutions after a competitive application process aided by external review— agreed to develop, teach, and evaluate a CEC, to promote civic engagement on their campus and in the local community, to participate in reciprocal peer review, and to share associated research or pedagogical innovations with the scholarly community via publications or conference presentations.
The PFL Program promoted philanthropist Eugene M. Lang’s foundational vision of “educating for citizenship” in a range of related contexts: the three “C”s of classroom, campus, and community. It also expanded on that vision by adding a fourth “C”—the community of scholars and their professional discourse—which completes what we call the “Periclean Diamond.” By extending civic pedagogy to the campus, connecting undergraduate education with community input and engagement, and linking all of those projects with faculty development, professional interchanges, reciprocal peer review, and public scholarship, the PFL Program developed a promising, replicable, and sustainable model of civic education.