Esensten-Cicon '17 Reflects on Her Experience at Citizen University

Citizen University 

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Citizen University held their annual conference in Seattle last weekend. The purpose of the conference is to bring together hundreds of changemakers, activists, and catalysts to learn about power, build networks, and recharge their sense of purpose. This year’s theme, Citizen Power Now, asked attendees to solve problems in new ways, bypassing tradition institutions, ideologies, and politics to rekindle citizenship in the US. Speakers included SAAS parents Nick Hanauer (Cole ’18 and Lauren ’20) and Robert Schenkkan (Josh ’10). Sophomore Stella Esensten-Cicon also attended the conference and reflected upon her experience (see below).

Written by Stella Esensten-Cicon ‘17:

The Citizen University National Conference was all about citizen’s power. This conference focused mostly on the everyday person, knowing they make a difference, knowing that they have power. This event was hosted by Eric Liu, who is the founder and CEO of Citizen University.

Sticking with the theme of this event, every speaker spoke on different ways they help their communities, from Ai-jen Poo (recent MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, founder of the National Domestic Worker’s Alliance and co-director of the Caring Across Generations Campaign) to Mauricio Lim Miller (founder of the Family Independence Initiative and recent MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship recipient).

During the second day of this two-day event, we broke out into different focus groups. I went to one entitled “Mapping Civic and Creative Power.” This was focused on the district redesign in Austin, Texas, and an organization called the Wildflowers Institute, which is led by Hanmin Liu. The Wildflowers Institute created a way of city modeling where people use toys and action figures to demonstrate what their community is like to them.

During my second breakout session, I went to one entitled “What is Prison For?” which was led by filmmaker Lynn Novick, who is currently making a film on one of the only inmate secondary educational systems in the United States. She showed a rough cut of some of the filming that she has already done inside the prison and answered questions on different ways one could get involved and what the experience of being a student in these facilities is like.

This event was truly amazing. I was able to hear so many different people, with different life experiences speak to what they have gone through and how they currently make a difference. These speakers were all inspirational due to the fact they were all making a difference single-handedly or are leading an organization that is helping people. There were over thirty-five different speakers and presenters. While I was not able to hear all of the speakers, I wish I was able to, because everyone I heard speak said such amazing things, and all of the information given was so remarkable.