Civic Owlets

Every year the CCL hosts Urban Immersion, a week-long immersive experience for incoming undergraduate students to explore the city of Houston, a variety of social issues, and build understanding of civic engagement methodologies and create a cohort of likeminded peers as they matriculate to Rice in the fall. Civic Owlets was an online program created in response to the COVID-19 crisis which prevented on-campus events for the duration of the summer, including Urban Immersion. 300 students, or just over 25% of the incoming class, participated in the program.

Civic Owlets featured partners focusing on a variety of topics (shown in Slide 2, including racial justice, healthcare disparities and the environment) but all tied to the common theme of civic engagement and particularly voter engagement. Student participants were asked to reflect on their own values and how they related to their views of voter engagement (Slides 3-12). As part of our focus on civic engagement, students also supported a phone banking initiative from the City of Houston and Mi Familia Vota, placing calls to 2 underrepresented communities for the 2020 census. Over the course of the program students placed more than 1100 calls to businesses in the Greenspoint and Denver Harbor Neighborhoods to support the census and raise awareness (Slides 13-15).