The Student Civic Engagement Council (SCEC) at the University of Pittsburgh is dedicated to cultivating student leadership, community involvement, and social justice advocacy. SCEC connects students with meaningful opportunities to serve and learn alongside local Pittsburgh communities, advancing a shared commitment to positive social change.
Founded in 2014 under the Office of PittServes, SCEC reflects the University of Pittsburgh’s commitment to community engagement and student development. The Council empowers students to develop as engaged citizens who contribute to a culture of civic service at the University.
Join the Council
SCEC is actively recruiting new students to join the Council for the 2024-2025 school year!
Interested applicants can sign up to attend an information session to learn more about our programs. Sign up for an information session.
Questions? Contact scec@pitt.edu
Program Goals
The Student Civic Engagement Council (SCEC) program is designed not only to influence the service and social justice engagement of students but also of neighborhoods and the campus community. The goals of the SCEC are encompassed into 3 main focus areas.
Student Development
- Provide students with leadership training, including professional development while building upon their talents and skills to impact their campus community to increase student service engagement
- Foster a sense of transformation through community service
Campus Commitment
- To challenge and encourage the University to promote a culture of service where every student, faculty, and staff is encouraged to be an active volunteer and engaged citizen.
- Support the commitment of the Community Engagement Centers
- To be an advocate of social justice issues that affect students and diverse neighborhoods and communities utilizing university resources.
Community Engagement
- To support and work with communities and neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh region to break down barriers of equity and inclusion through meaningful service and civic engagement.
- To improve the quality and efficiency of service provided to communities and neighborhoods by university students, staff and faculty.
Program Approach
Nine members of the SCEC will embark on a 1-year commitment where they can strive to achieve the program goals as mentioned above. The approach to achieve these goals will be structured into 3 programmatic approaches.
Neighborhood Match: 2 members of the SCEC will strategically match to various neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh area that is a focus area for the university. During their 1 year commitment, these SCEC members will develop relationships with key community stakeholders (nonprofits, community groups), working together to leverage community and campus resources to develop and improve community needs.
University Match: Each SCEC member will be matched with a university department partner, in order to promote student volunteerism.
Mentorship: Each SCEC member will be matched with a University/community member that champions community engagement. For this commitment they will meet at least once a semester to discuss the members’ development of key service leadership attributes that can contribute to a successful community outcome. Additionally, each member will act as mentors to members of the Service Leadership Committee (SLC), thus creating a mentor pipeline that ultimately contributes to service leadership development for the Pitt community.
Member Requirements
To be an eligible member of the Student Civic Engagement Council (SCEC), each student must have met the following requirements before applying for membership:
- At least 2.5 overall GPA
- Must submit resume with application.
- Must be available early August 2024 for training.
- Completed application submitted before the deadline.
- One letter of recommendation (personal, professional, or academic source) is not required but highly recommended to be submitted. Recommendation letters can be submitted after the application deadline if needed. Recommendation letters can be submitted with your application or can be directly emailed to scec@pitt.edu. Please email scec@pitt.edu should you have any questions regarding letters of recommendation.
To apply for the SCEC the completed application and supporting documentation must be received before application close. Applications and supporting materials must be submitted online.