Student Deliberations - Close Up Foundation

The skills of deliberation are needed now more than ever.

Young Americans are coming of age at a trying time, one that is too often defined by political polarization and a lack of understanding and cooperation across differences. In this landscape, the skills and practices of deliberation are more essential than ever, offering a key to understanding policy issues from multiple perspectives, making informed decisions, and acting cooperatively in the best interests of entire communities.

Together, Close Up and the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University are expanding on the historic gathering of America in One Room: The Youth Vote to bring a culture of deliberative dialogue to schools and universities nationwide.

Join students across the country for an online deliberation!

Deliberation has been shown to alleviate polarization, moderate opinions, and produce lasting effects on policy opinions, voting intention, and mutual respect. That’s why Close Up and Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Lab (DDL) are hosting free, ongoing, online deliberations to engage students nationwide using Stanford’s AI-assisted Online Deliberation Platform. Each event includes 60 minutes of small-group deliberation on current policy issues followed by a 60-minute plenary session with experts and policymakers, giving students a chance to learn from an array of perspectives and form their own considered opinions.

We will be hosting a national deliberation for students during Civic Learning Week (March 10-14, 2025). More information coming soon!

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Bring deliberation to your school or community!

Drawing upon 50+ years of experience in nonpartisan, issue-centered education, Close Up has designed programming in partnership with DDL to help schools bring deliberative dialogue to their communities.

A Day of Deliberative Dialogue: This one-day, regional workshop gathers student cohorts from area schools to deliberate community and national issues and hear from a panel of experts. See the workshop we organized with Georgetown Day School for students in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia as an example.
Facilitation Training for Student Leaders: This two-part series for students includes an initial facilitation training for student leaders (and/or faculty members) followed by an opportunity for students to participate in a community-wide deliberation.
Professional Development for Educators: Our comprehensive PD gives teachers and students the skills, strategies, and resources to make deliberation an everyday practice.

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