David Collier and Daniel Soltman, third-year students at Washington University School of Law

Fluency in civics and the constitutional system is necessary for an active and engaged citizenry, without which democracy cannot succeed. The Washington University Marshall-Brennan Project places law students in St. Louis high schools to teach a semester-long course on students’ constitutional rights in order to address a fundamental civics gap in American education.

The commitment “Addressing Civic Education in St. Louis” will expand the Project to reach hundreds of St. Louis high school students within five years, and ultimately aims to make the Project a permanent institution for educational progress in the St. Louis area. Collier and Soltman’s commitment addresses the global and national problem of low civics literacy by focusing locally on St. Louis high school students who face a variety of chronic educational challenges in a provisionally-accredited school district where the graduation rate has been less than fifty percent.

The Project has outlined two strategic goals: expansion within St. Louis and institutionalization at Washington University Law School.