Thanks for the lookahead. Tomorrow, the u. S. National intelligence chair will talk about changing National Security needs. The event is hosted by the Atlantic Council and live coverage begins at 5 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3. Next, a forum examines how to get citizens more involved in their communities. After that, discussion concerning crimereducing programs that offer alternative incarceration. Then, q a. Civic business and education leaders talk about activism and corporate responsibility. During the event, retired general Stanley Mcchrystal is recognized for his service and just how to get involved in the community. It is about two hours and 40 minutes. And now, ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the national anthem. By the say, can you see, dawns early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming brought stripes and bright stars through the perilous night watched ramparts we were so gallantly streaming red glare, the bombs bursting in air night and through the that our flag was still there oh, say does that starspangled banner yet wave free andland of the brave of the [applause] ladies and gentlemen, please Welcome National conference on citizenship chairman michael weiser. [applause] diane is not only a talented performer and artist, she is also a very talented fundraiser. Her connection to the National Conference on citizenship is working with our service here project. You may have heard the term the franklin project. It is all aligned. We appreciate your efforts on our behalf and we appreciate you bringing your talents to our stage once again. [applause] am significantly less talented. Ncoc is honored to partner with American University for this years conference. Would all of the claude eagles in the room please stand up. People from American University in the room, please stand up. [applause] thank you for being here. A. U. Is a fall break for and faculty and most of the administration is at a retreat. There are some students on campus. A number have joined us as we appreciate their participation and deeply appreciate the partnership of American University, which, like the National Conference on citizenship, is a congressionallychartered organization. Center, they help undergraduates volunteer every year. We learn by doing. We learn by doing. Their freshman class alone provides more than 7000 hours of Freshman Service experience. I assume also studying for midterms, but that is just a guess on my part. There many programs connect students with the Diverse Communities of the d. C. Metro area, strengthening both in the process. Please join me in thanking a. U. For hosting this conference. [applause] i also want to thank our conference Title Sponsors, their generous support allows us to host this engaging event and develop worldclass programming in addition, i would like to recognize kkpmg, apollo education group, sprint, ge anddation, nrg, isl, paycom, who have all contributed to the success of this conference. Please join me in thanking all of our sponsors. [applause] ncoc is called by our congressional charter to convene in the Civic Engagement field, create programs that advanced citizenship, and facilitate action by our partners around the country. We hold this conference as a mandate of our charter once a year. This is the seventh conference that i have been honored to chair. For nearly 70 years, we have been convening and it has played an Important Role in shaping our countrys civic egos. Governors, Supreme Court justices, president s have all shared their views on important desegregationing and the role of government. This year, we will shine a light on the subject of economic inequality. If you have not already, i encourage you to walk through history. There is a series of posters on display in the long hallway leading to these rooms. It does a really interesting job of telling the history of ncoc and the history of Civic Engagement for the United States since 1946. I want to thank Jeannie Harris and Kendall Lorenz and lorenzen for bringing it to life. They were our summer interns this year. The game is connect, and power, act. Empower, you will share ideas and Lessons Learned that empower each of us to take action that leads to greater civil Civic Engagement. Being together, engaging one another, taking what we learn from this room into our daily lives can have meaningful impact on the quality of citizenship in the country. This is every year. An important year, meeting. I would like to take a moment to recognize my partners in this effort. My fellow directors of the National Conference on citizenship who give up their time and their resources and of ncoc good hearts directors who are here this morning, please stand and be recognized. [applause] partner. E main in the course of caring ncoc, i have been fortunate to work with two executive directors. Contribution has broadened and deepened. Shirka. Ronounced you got it from the source. His work on service and revolutionary approach to creating National Service opportunities have led the citizenship guilt into new territory. And you have a partner like him, each day, you get encouraged in your own work. I get a call, i get a fax, i get a text, i get an email, something that reminds me that the future is there. And it inspires me. A passion for Civic Engagement and health for our communities. Please welcome elir. [applause] thank you so much for that introduction. Join me in thanking michael for his commitment and his leadership to ncoc. [applause] i also want to thank michael and tom,ife, julie, as well as phil. This year, we invited a number of our partners to design and lead the learning summits that are happening this afternoon. I want to ask those people to stand and be recognized and be thanked. Do not be shy if you are in the audience. [applause] our mission is to strengthen civic life in america. Ussyde the decedent deb once said that music is like the space between the notes. I think community is the space between people. The question is, how do we fill that space . Do we fill it with trust . Do we fill it with support . Do we reach across the divide to work on common problems together . Do we volunteer . Do we vote . Do we engage with the government . The answers to these questions are credible to our country because we know that when people are engaged, families are stronger, individuals tend to be more employed, schools are better, governments are more responsive, and critical needs are met when all of these things happen. It is this sort of activity that we define as civic life. When we talk about strengthening civic life, this is what we are talking about. Increasing that sort of the space and making between people vibrant and alive. When that happens, we have strong civic health. Over the past eight years, we have led a movement to call attention to the civic health of a country. With many of you in the audience, we have issued over 30 reports around from around the country. The story ofling how well our communities are doing. Or in some cases, not doing. The knot is also important the not is also important. Those reports have been a catalyst for action across the United States. The Census Bureau collects the data that is the essential ingredient of those reports. Together, we put out that data every year as part of something called volunteering and civic life. We will talk a little bit about that data in a little bit. That is an important element. We also helped to create the civic 50 program together with our partners, points of life and bloomberg. The civic 50 calls attention to the top 50 communityminded companies in the United States. These are companies that are doing great work in their communities, but also getting something in return. They are strengthening their brand. They are increasing their capacity to recruit employees and to retain them. Those two things are critically important because a lot of companies are learning that more and more people, especially young people, want to work for an employer who cares about the community and does something to match that care. We are thrilled at ncoc that bloomberg and points of light are continuing to spur us forward and i want to give them a round of applause for doing that. [applause] taken the lead in the service year group net. We want to have an impact in our communities. Service year is an initiative of the National Service alliance. We are a proud member of the alliance. I want to recognize our alliance partners, the franklin project, voices for National Service, and service nation. Thanks to all of you for being members of the alliance. The goal of the alliance and service year is fairly simple. One is to dramatically increase the Service Opportunities for young people in america. There are a lot more people who want to serve than there are positions and we need to change that. The second thing is to foster the type of active engaged citizenship that the ncoc charter calls for. We know from the data and from our research that when people are engaged in any way, they tend to be more engaged in other ways. If you volunteer, you are more likely to vote and vice versa. National service is a real multiplier. People serve the community for a year, they are very active. And also going to the Nonprofit Sector. We need lots of folks to serve communities that way. So we are a proud member of the National Service alliance. Of course, all of our work would be easier if schools were to embrace their Civic Mission. After all, that was the idea of public education, right . Partners of proud the campaign for Civic Mission of schools and we are proud to, with them, support their seminal report called guardians of democracy. That should not be confused with guardians of the galaxy. That is a whole different thing. Later today, we will have deep dive summits into all four of these areas where we will ask you, with our captains, to talk about the work that you are the lessonsare learned, to challenge of us and each other to think about how we should do our work differently, to connect, to help us empower each other so that we can act when we leave this conference and we can be stronger for it. That is our Mission Today and i am thrilled that all of you are here to be a part of that. At this time, i want to introduce marcy kaptur us marci campos. Teaching american studies and government classes, she is critical to fulfilling a. U. s commitment to communitybased learning. She is a strong advocate for engaging students and services and coordinates departments campus to support increased Service Opportunities. Please join me in welcoming her. [applause] good morning. Great to have you all on our campus. I want toof a. U. , welcome you and just congratulate the group that organized this. The Conference Agenda looks excellent and very much aligned with the importance that a. U. Places on Student Engagement and civic and community issues. Strategic plan that puts great emphasis on its work, stating that one of our goals is to act on our values through social responsibility and service and that we have a vigorous commitment to the city and people of washington d c. Last year, the university decided to go further. We concluded that we needed some campuswide learning outcomes to define what students should be able to do by the time they graduate. Among the 10 learning outcomes agreed upon, one is actually Civic Engagement and it states, graduates will demonstrate knowledge of and respect for society and the environment. They will demonstrate an appreciation of the importance of the collective and the roles of the individual. They will act with a sense of responsibility and service to the Public Interest and to social justice. A. U. s history is rooted in a commitment to Civic Engagement and we maintain that commitment. As was stated earlier, the university was chartered by an act of congress in 1893 and it was established to actually train and support public service. U. Is number three among mediumsized universities with 43 of our alumni currently serving as peace corps volunteers. A. U. Had 19ar, president ial management fellows and that is for students pursuing federal service careers. Students are among the most politicallyactive in the office, the center for Community Engagement and service, has the privilege and the opportunity to be a campus hub for organizing and for monitoring different forms of service and Civic Engagement. We manage an array of programs to extend Student Learning beyond the classroom and into the city, enabling our students to apply their learning to reallife situations that are being tackled every day by our enormous Nonprofit Sector. We are very lucky in washington because we have both the communityorganizations, the National Organizations, international, and public offering. Among our signature programs are freshmen service experience, which just celebrated its 25th year anniversary. We invite students to begin their College Experience by going out into the city and working at about 50 different sites throughout the city to do two full days of Community Service and learn about the place they will be living for the coming year. We think that is a great way to start your education, to learn about where you are going to live and what are the pressing issues . 550700r, anywhere from students participate in that program. We also have a unique alternative program which operates over enter, spring, and summer breaks and is an alternative to the typical cancuntype spring break. Key leadershipay roles in this program because they design, plan, and implement a social justiceoriented trip, either domestic or international. They decide it and write a proposal and it has to be approved and selected. In the coming year, we have 13 trips planned. Just as a sampling, one group will be going to the u. S. Mexico border to learn about immigration and how the legal system is a dressing the arrival of thousands is addressing the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied minors who are fleeing violence. Another group will go to San Francisco to look at the andrsection of homelessness another will focus on healing and Community Development in rwanda. The program that is growing the most rapidly on our campus is communitybased learning, commonly called service learning. Some colleges actually require it read we do not. This is an academic, coursebased pedagogy that classroombased learning through meaningful involvement with a community agency, a nonprofit, or a school. Through a planned collaboration with the professor and community partners, all stakeholders benefit, both i meeting course objectives and addressing communityidentified needs. This is really important, that reciprocity. His current semester, we have 47 different courses in which students are linking the course lectures and the discussions and the readings to an issue faced by residents in the city. Classes as varied as Public Health, third world cities, visual literacy, marketing for change, and the american constitution are linking to over 100 organizations, developing partnerships in with both in which both sides benefit. You are seeing the impact of income inequality on participation in our society is central to what our students are exploring. Why are these new approaches to learning growing . And they are, not just here, but around the country. Why is it so important right now . Millennial students want to be activelyengaged in their learning. They learn much more from handson experiences that connect to peoples lives, not just what they read about in the abstract. Retention is big in higher education. Several studies have shown us that there is a correlation between involvement in communitybased learning and completing college. So that is critical to all of us who are paying tuition somewhere. Re to thents exposu Nonprofit Sector opens their eyes to the great opportunities that these places offer when they graduate and are looking for jobs. We offered them both the experience and a whole world of where you can work. We have many students now working in d. C. Public schools, including in cesar chazen chavez, which is one of our presenters. And the agencies they have collaborated with as undergrads. For me, this is very gratifying because my own professional history lies with schools in d. C. And maryland and with the Nonprofit Sector, where i worked for 25 years before i came to a. U. 10 years ago. We believe that nonprofit agencies, public offices, and schools should all see the university as collaborators in the search for the solution to problems faced in areas like , housing, health immigration, employment, and the environment. That is just to name a few. We can be so educators c oeducators and problem solvers together. On behalf of the university, i welcome you and look forwar