Congratulations are in order for the eight FUFSD students who received the New York State Seal of Civic Readiness. These seniors received a pin that they proudly displayed on their gowns at graduation.

The New York State Education Department defines civic readiness as, “the ability to make a positive difference in the public life of our communities through the combination of civic knowledge, skills and actions, mindsets, and experiences.”

Civic-ready students harness civic knowledge, skills, and mindsets to make informed decisions and take meaningful action, for themselves, their communities and the broader public, in a democratic society. To support this, schools must intentionally offer opportunities that foster civic understanding, develop civic skills/attitudes and involve students in real-world civic experiences. These elements enable young people to engage productively as informed participants across school, community, state, national and global settings.

One of the opportunities available to students was an elective Civics course taught by Dominick Pascullo. “They have to do a civic project and take civic courses, we created this course to satisfy both of these requirements just by being here.”

Pascullo allows students to explore topics of interest, gearing his class towards addressing current events and issues that students wanted to discuss. In doing so, students remarked they felt confident and safe to discuss their differing perspectives and explore their feelings concerning a variety of topics.

A variety of civic workers visited the class to not only speak to the students about their roles in government, but also listen to students' concerns and questions regarding their community.

Student Eliana White shared her favorite aspect of the class, “Visiting the United Nations was really cool. We got to go into the rooms where the assemblies actually meet and got a tour where we learned a lot.”

White is a sophomore and recommends that other students choose this course as one of their electives. She shared that she is glad she took the class when she did. “I already did a lot of community service, but this class has inspired me to continue making time for it. I like to do it, but now I really understand the impact and importance.”

“This class was awesome because it was really discussion based rather than constant lectures. It was energizing to participate in class rather than just listen,” said one student.

Student Treh Hicks was one of the seniors who received the Seal of Civic Readiness. He proudly wore his pin of distinction on his gown at graduation.

“A lot of what we learned in this class we were able to see in action. I took Government too, which is a required class,” shared Hicks. “Taking both at the same time was helpful because they built on each other. Government was a lot of learning about what things looked like and how it is set up. This class we learned about how things work and looked at examples of what things look like in action.”