Courage Is Contagious: How Students Are Rewriting the Story of Division

Every time I watch students working out in our Civic Gym, I’m reminded how different their reality is from the headlines. You might expect to see students shouting at or mercilessly trolling each other. But in fact, they’re leaning in, asking questions, and finding shared values even in disagreement.

Most students start out nervous. Many admit they are anxious about talking to someone who might see the world differently. But by the end, that anxiety gives way to something else: relief, curiosity, even joy. The short video below features Civic Gym students describing exactly that. Students who do not see eye to eye still manage to listen and learn from each other. You can almost see their confidence growing, and beyond that, a new sense of agency, the belief that their own actions can shape outcomes. Psychologist Albert Bandura called this sense of agency “self-efficacy,” the force that determines the choices people make, the effort they invest, and the persistence they show when faced with obstacles.

That is what the Civic Gym is all about. When students build civic muscles through practice, they gain civic confidence. And that confidence becomes civic courage, the willingness to stay in hard conversations, to work across differences, and to strengthen our democracy together.

Our BHAG (Big Harry! Audacious Goal) is this: What might our country look like if every student discovered that kind of courage while they were in college?

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