What we are hearing is the loudest people, not the majority of people

Power Station

Rajiv Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, is testing a hypothesis. He wants to know whether the right interventions, from mentorship to education and opportunities for putting ideas into action will yield effective citizens, young people with the will and capacity to strengthen our embattled democracy. The Institute’s recent survey of 18-24 year old’s reveals an alarming lack of understanding about civics and also that they are not particularly ideologically driven or party aligned. They care about the state of their communities and the world, are open to people with different points of view and are looking for people and institutions that are ready to get the work done. Building great citizens is a shift for what was founded in 1945 as the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Its mission, to build a pipeline of college professors to educate returning G.I.’s, grew into what is now a remarkable fellowship of 27,000 scholars, innovators, and artists. Now rebranded as the Institute, with Rajiv as its leading force, it is demonstrating that informed and engaged young people can be remarkable citizens when we give them the tools and get out of their way.