• This past week at the United Nations
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Congratulations to all of the students who came to Civitas last Saturday to brainstorm issues for discussion at our Sat., Feb. 24 "Challenges to American Democracy" conference. Students came up with dozens of ideas, and you can access them all by clicking here.

You can check out more photos from Saturday by clicking here.

There is no issue that is more current both domestically and internationally than immigration. St. Louis is fortunate to have a group like Missouri Immigrants and Refugee Advocates (MIRA) in its community. The director of MIRA, Marie-Aimée Abizera, will be presenting and listening to Civitas students two weeks from this Saturday, February 17.

You can sign-up to hear Marie-Aimée by clicking here.

Students from Hixson are reading about Human Rights

 

Students around the greater St. Louis area have spent first semester learning about the United Nations and researching the countries they will be representing at their Model UN General Assemblies. Now it's time for the next step in the process: selecting a world issue to solve. Civitas has been preparing students for this by going to classrooms and talking about human rights and resolution writing. Already, half of the schools in the Model UN program have been visited or have a visit scheduled. This week, Civitas staff will be at Brittany Woods, Holman Middle, and Hixson Middle.

More information about the Middle School Model United Nations program can be found here. To schedule a classroom visit, please contact Bobbi Kennedy at [email protected] or call (314) 443-9785.

We had three very successful Model UN sessions in the Fall, and as might be expected, there was plenty of unfinished business. In addition, there are always new global problems.

 

The spring Civitas Model United Nations will be on Saturday, Feb. 24, from 8:30 - 11:30 AM at the Creve Coeur Drury Inn (map). Keep in mind that in the afternoon, we will have our "Challenges to American Democracy" in the same venue.

 

The maximum number of delegates that we can take for the Model UN session is 80; no more than ten per school. Students will represent the same countries that they had in the fall. This means that we may have more than one delegation from the same country. We have had this situation in the past, and it works without problems.

 

Delegate slots will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. So, interested students should register ASAP. To register, click here.

The first "Challenges to American Democracy" conference is on Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Creve Coeur Drury Inn ( map), from 1:00 - 4:00 PM. This is an opportunity to brainstorm solutions to many of the tough problems facing the United States.

The conference follows the morning Model UN and a lunch break. Students can choose to attend one or the other, or both.

 

The "Challenges" will consist of two parts:

 

1. Brainstorming a list of issues that seem to be most important to advancing American Democracy. These can be "bread and butter" issues like poverty or the environment, or they can be procedural ones like the Electoral College or voter suppression.
    
2. Developing a method to seek solutions to the problems. We don't have to solve the problems, at least not on that Saturday. But what we do have to do is ask the key questions, and then develop options for action. There will be no effort to reach a group consensus, but at the end we will ask each student to write a summary of his or her ideas on the issues and we will post these on the Civitas blog.

Interested students can register by clicking here. 

Join us on Saturday, March 3 for another exciting Renegade Bus Tour called MEET YOUR MAKER(S). The RenegadeStL website describes the tour as, "Beer and shoes get a lot of play (historically speaking) when it comes to STL's manufacturing badassery. But we've made a crazy amount oif other cool things-and STILL DO. Ever wonder just what in the heck is happening in all those nondescript buildings along the riverfront? Do you get hot and bothered when admiring the gorgeous architecture of nineteenth century warehouses? Want to feel blessed not to have a tannery down your street? Join us as we drive all over this darn city and be prepared to learn a crapload about the crazy, fascinating history of making shit in St. Louis! This tour features multiple stops with factory tours, a few strange smells, and, for the fist time, FOOD SAMPLES."

The bus will depart from the Civitas parking lot at 9:00 am sharp, so please arrive by 8:45. We will return by 11:30. Space is limited, so hurry and sign up for this exciting opportunity here.

At at time when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency somewhat unexpectedly agreed to a semi-comprehensive solution to the West Lake Landfill in St. Louis, a prescient movie about the radioactive history of St. Louis is being released on HBO. It is called "A tomic Homefront." Some Civitas students and staff saw an early release last summer at the Tivoli Theater, but now it is available for all.
The movie will be available next Monday, February 12, at 7:00 PM, Central Standard Time.

 

Civitas as morning and afternoon activities on Saturday, February 24, and now we're adding an evening one. We have a table at the League of Women Voters annual trivia event. The Civitas group has finished first two of the past three years, and this means cash rewards for the participants. Admission is free for all Civitas students.

This year we are looking for up to nine student participants. If you are interested, please contact Arthur at [email protected].

Additional information below:
 

Black: High School     Blue: Middle School              

 NOTE: All Civitas Activities are free of charge 

To Civitas full-year calendar