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Eastman Citizenship and Leadership Program

Justice and social engagement

The Donald and Christine Eastman Citizenship and Leadership Program is designed for students who want to connect their education to questions of justice and social engagement. This program is open to rising juniors who will participate in the program their junior and senior years.

Eastman Leaders are awarded up to $7,500 to support their participation in essential high-impact practices of the liberal arts experience—such as study abroad, service-learning and internships.

Banner (top): Eastman Leaders Alex Gordon, Summer Vishnu, Leah Totman and Katie Genovesi organized an interactive gathering on campus to discuss their group project “Your Whiteness is Showing.”

Quick contact

Amy Langenberg
Faculty Director of the Eastman Program
Associate Professor of Religious Studies

Leadership growth

Over the two years that Eastman Leaders participate in the program, they develop and actualize an individualized discovery plan focused on a driving concern, interest or question. Past discovery plans explored environmental justice, storytelling as a form of social empowerment, and ethnobotany—to give a few examples.

Weekly seminars

The Eastman Leaders are a cohort and a learning community. They discuss challenging social issues and key ideas every Wednesday evening in the Eastman Seminar. Senior Eastman Leaders, who have already taken the course, serve as mentors to new participants.

“If you have the resolve, the commitment and the ambition to embrace the full experience of the
life of the mind and the spirit, you will leave this college not simply with a diploma of which you will always be proud, but changed.” —Eckerd College President Emeritus Donald R. Eastman III

Two students wearing backpacks in the woods

Hiking 150 miles in 18 days along the Florida Trail to shine a light on social and environmental issues is one example of a successful Eastman Leaders project.

Eastman Leaders

The student-crafted logo, designed by Jan Urbanic

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