October 30, 2026
In a 1957 speech, Mike Mansfield said, “The task for the nation and that means all of us, then, is to seek always to enlarge our understanding of the world around us.”
Since moving back to Montana, I’ve gotten pretty used to answering the same two questions: Where do you work and what do you do?
I’ve been practicing my 30-second elevator speech about AmeriCorps and the Mansfield Center but somewhere between explaining what civic education is, the programs we’re building, and clarifying that I work in the Mansfield Library, not for the library, I feel like the bigger picture gets a little lost.
It may take me a few minutes to explain what I do every day, but the mission behind it is much easier to explain.
My supervisor, Logan Castor Parson, the Civic’s team’s Senior Program Officer sums it up pretty well by saying that civic education is not just about teaching kids about voting, but teaching kids about how to engage and create community.
Inspired by Mike Manfield’s legacy of public service, our team works to help students across Montana learn about their communities and their country and feel confident that they have a place in shaping both.
Two weeks ago, we hosted a Civics Forum and welcomed 250 high school students from across Western Montana for a day of workshops and lectures. I spoke with a student from Victor High School, a school with around 80 students total. She told me,”sometimes, coming from a small town, I feel like I don’t know anything but coming [to the forum] was eye opening for me because I realized that I know just as much as everyone else here.”
Hearing that from a student at such a small school put into perspective why our work matters. A major mission of our program is working to make civic education accessible to students across Montana, whether they attend a school of 1,000 in Missoula or 20 in Glasgow. Where you grow up or go to school shouldn’t determine whether you have the same access to learning opportunities or feel like you belong in these conversations.
We’re a small team, and there’s a lot of work that goes into building these programs. But the more involved I get, the more I’m challenged to become a better citizen myself. I’ve started paying closer attention to what it means to be part of a community and how I can contribute to it. I’ve also been lucky to have a great role model in both the namesake of our center, Mike Mansfield as well as my amazing coworkers who continually inspire me everyday to think bigger and do more.
Montana has a long history of people who have stepped up and served their communities and as a result made an impact far beyond our state. I hope that by connecting students to this history, we can help them see that they’re part of it, too. I’m still figuring out what all of this looks like in my own life, but it’s been exciting to work on something that helps students see that they have a larger place in the world too.
