Mission & Values

What do we mean by civic engagement?

Spring Into Discovery-Intentional Spring Break 2022

Students at Hungry Mother State Park for Intentional Fall Break in 2023. Students at Hungry Mother State Park for Intentional Fall Break in 2023.

Vision and Values

Building on the long legacy of Emory & Henry’s commitment to connecting learning with civic responsibility, the Appalachian Center for Civic Life seeks to help our students become active and engaged citizens of this region, the nation, and the world. We seek to move beyond the traditional understandings of service-learning that tend to be centered around logging volunteer hours. Instead, we create opportunities for our students to be involved in a variety of civic engagement projects designed to meet specific learning objectives and that lead to tangible outcomes in the community.

Our focus is on the interconnection of place, citizenship, public policy, and social capital. The Appalachian Center for Civic Life employs a place-based model of civic life, one that connects citizenship and learning as part of a response to the long, environmental and human history of a place.


The mission and work of the Appalachian Center for Civic Life at Emory & Henry is guided by seven key values: