Sometimes, starting a new job with an employer undergoing change can be exhilarating.
When Joshua Rauch ’08 accepted the city manager position for Riverside, Ohio, in 2021, the voters in this young city had just elected a new mayor and council members. They had a vision for change.
So Rauch did what he knew best — he rolled up his sleeves and got to work. In three years, Rauch has improved the city’s budgeting and forecasting processes, recruited and retained new staff, and helped attract new businesses.
But Rauch’s passion for public service didn’t come about on its own; that seed was planted as a political science major at the University of Dayton in what was then the new Dayton Civic Scholars program.
“[Dayton Civic Scholars] was exceptionally influential as it helped me decide that local government was the vocation I wanted,” he said. “Participating in the program allowed me to marinate in that [civically engaged] world for four years and benefit from interacting with people who loved public service. Without it, I definitely wouldn’t be where I’m at today.”
Specifically, it was the way the program, which was created to prepare students for civic leadership, leaned heavily into experiential learning, including community-based senior capstone projects.
Rauch worked with the Walnut Hills neighborhood northeast of UD’s campus for his class’s capstone project. Gaining the experience to build bridges in the community is what ultimately sold him on public service as a career.
“The formative part for me was not the end goal of the project; it was the process,” he said. “Part of it was to get feedback from the neighborhood … in some respects, I think that’s the real business of public service.”
“Being an active listener, taking feedback to heart and then applying it to a solution is at the core of where local government shines best.”
Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, Dayton Civic Scholars stays true to its core of civic engagement, focusing on people and engaging communities and governments.
With immersive experiences like the capstone project and semesterly requirements that include 30 hours of civic engagement, weekly meetings and civic leadership classes, students in the program learn not only why civic engagement is important but how it works and how to do it.
“It sounds so cheesy when we talk about having a passion for serving others, but it’s really quite true,” said Logan Cobbs ’17, whose time in the program as a political science major at UD helped her find fulfillment in public service.
Cobbs is Springfield’s (Ohio) community development director after working as the communications director for the city of Corpus Christi, Texas. Her Dayton Civic Scholars lessons on the value of community-informed decision-making showed in Texas when she started an engagement division for her team to be physically present and, she said, “meet people where they are.”
“We talk about being great leaders, advancing the common good, but we can’t do that without having diverse voices in the room.”
“When it comes to civic engagement and serving the community, that’s something all of us should internalize and prioritize,” Cobbs said.
Cobbs and Rauch also had the opportunity to learn from leaders in the classroom, including Brother Raymond L. Fitz, S.M. ’64, for whom the Fitz Center is named and a president emeritus; the late Dean Lovelace ’72, former Dayton city commissioner; and the late Don Vermillion, former Montgomery County (Ohio) administrator.
Students today are learning from leaders in the city, county and nonprofits through their engagement opportunities.
“Right now, civic engagement and democracy are incredibly important — shaping and teaching students how to be active citizens and equipping them with the skills to make a meaningful impact is crucial,” said Samantha Tsuleff Kennedy ’12, director of the Dayton Civic Scholars program.
“They don’t have to be a policy major to do that, they can be active citizens through their vocations.”
This year’s cohort boasts nine majors, from art education to sociology to electrical engineering.
Cobbs herself started as an undecided major leaning toward physical therapy when she joined the program and saw her future forming in front of her.
“I love working with the community, talking through their concerns, and having the ability to help bridge some of those gaps,” she said. “It’s not for everybody, certainly, but when you have that passion, that yearning to help those around you and to see a community grow and thrive, it makes public service worth it.”