EPIIC

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EPIIC (and acronym for Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship) is a program at Tufts University in the Program of The Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University. It began in 1985 as part of the Experimental College at Tufts. Students study and research a global dilemma over the course of an academic year and host an international symposium on the topic.

The program is run by Sherman Teichman.

[edit] About EPIIC

EPIIC is a carefully integrated multidisciplinary program. Through its innovative and rigorous curricula and projects, EPIIC prepares young people to play active roles in their communities, whether at the local, national or global level. Many students consider their participation in EPIIC a profoundly formative experience: challenging them to reassess or even jettison prior assumptions or beliefs; expanding their understanding of how historical, cultural and ideological forces can affect both individuals and nations; and inspiring them to pursue careers in public service or international affairs.

As educators and practitioners lament the lack of informed involvement of the younger generations in their civic communities, EPIIC is working to promote the active engagement of young people in global and national issues and to create tangible, collaborative relationships within and among the academy, the general public, and the professional community.

EPIIC's main components are:

an intensive, year-long academic COLLOQUIUM for both undergraduate and graduate students
a global RESEARCH AND INTERNSHIP PROGRAM that includes multi-year integrated internships and capstone honors theses
INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMMING
an INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
PROFESSIONAL WORKSHOPS
a MEDIAFORUM for editors and reporters
INQUIRY, a national high school global issues simulation program
PUBLIC SERVICE initiatives

Each year, EPIIC's initiatives explore one central global dilemma, a broad theme that tests and transcends national sovereignty. The process provides the intellectual space where students can explore the complex issues emerging from these dilemmas and can create projects that enhance and invigorate the traditional curriculum.

It is student-centered education that promotes the linkage of theory to practice and encourages moral responsibility, life-long learning, and engaged citizenship.

In the public realm, through its programs dedicated to presenting a continuum of viewpoints, EPIIC contributes to civil discourse and substantive debate. From its inception, its non-polemical setting has helped to move forward policy discussions at both the national and international levels. Diverse practitioners such as senior intelligence experts, human rights activists, journalists, and government officials, have noted that EPIIC affords them an open forum, critical to developing new ways of thinking and new initiatives.