Abstract
The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation (ENACT) is a national, non-partisan program based at Brandeis University that engages undergraduates at colleges and universities in state-level legislative change by teaching them to work with legislators, staffers, and community organizations to advance policy. By engaging young people around the country in civic activism built on knowledge, cooperation, justice and integrity, ENACT is becoming a major voice in addressing challenges to American democracy. In ENACT courses, students learn about participating in the legislative and advocacy process at the state level, with a substantial hands-on component in which they engage directly in that process. The first ENACT course was taught at Brandeis University in 2011, titled “Advocacy for Policy Change”. It has been a full decade since these inaugural students completed the course, and since the first of them entered the post-college work force. Over the years, anecdotal stories have been
shared about the impact that the course had on alumni’s career paths and their civic engagement. In the summer of 2021, a Brandeis research team launched a study to survey and interview these students to more systematically understand the role that ENACT has played in the lives of some of its graduates.