Building Civic Muscles With Record-Breaking Intercollegiate Civic Dialogue

Against the backdrop of rising polarization and a divisive presidential election, it’s not just possible — it’s effective — to communicate across differences.

CHICAGO, Ill. (Nov. 14, 2024) — The nonpartisan nonprofit Unify America successfully completed another chart-topping Unify Challenge College Bowl and launched its first-ever Deep Dive event this fall. Part of the organization’s Civic Gym virtual platform, these innovative nationwide programs are designed to bring together college students from different backgrounds for one-on-one conversations about pressing national issues. The impactful experiences provide an opportunity to practice communicating across differences and to build critical civic muscles in a real-world context.

“Almost all of my students were influenced or moved or inspired in some way, and these types of activities will always be beneficial. Most students realize how alike they are with others, despite political leanings, and that's a real eye-opening thing for them,” said Emily Lane, PhD, MFA, adjunct instructor at the University of Central Arkansas. “It's great to see, and all it takes is one nicely structured conversation. I will continue to require students to participate.” 

Grounded in research and built for scale, each multi-week, intercollegiate virtual Civic Gym event features guided video conversions between pairs of students from different institutions, backgrounds, beliefs and geographic locations—from Alaska to Illinois to Florida. These structured discussions help participants hone critical thinking, empathy and collaborative problem-solving skills, fueled by active listening and perspective sharing.

The Unify Challenge College Bowl — the largest and only intercollegiate program of its kind — takes place three times each year (in the spring, summer and fall). The Fall 2024 College Bowl was the largest ever, with 6,776 students from 131 institutions across 38 states breaking down barriers and discovering shared goals through low-stakes, high-impact dialogue on key topics. 

Since the first Unify Challenge College Bowl in fall 2021, the program's cumulative impact has grown exponentially with 21,280 total student participants from 221 institutions across 42 states.

Building on the success of the College Bowl, and at the request of students and educators, Unify America launched the Deep Dive this fall — a new program that allows participants to explore one critical issue in depth. The inaugural event hosted 1,672 students from 73 institutions across 30 states with topic options including guns, voting and free speech. 

“Our country’s higher education institutions face the challenge of preparing students not only academically but also as civic-minded individuals who can engage respectfully across differences,” said Michelle Sobel, president of Unify America. “The Unify America Civic Gym is a critical solution for any campus looking to enhance experiential learning, equip its students with civic preparedness and foster respectful dialogue.” 

With hundreds of public and private institutions participating — from Georgia State and Miami Dade College to Duke and Case Western Reserve — this experience isn’t just for political science or civic studies majors. 

Across academic disciplines and fields of study, higher education leaders around the country are successfully integrating Unify America programming into their coursework, classrooms and campuses. In fact, 98% of college faculty would recommend the Unify Challenge College Bowl to their colleagues. 

Participating students overwhelmingly enjoy the experience and find it meaningful. They rate their experience highly (an 8.9 average on a 10-point scale) and report an increased interest in participating in civic life.

"A moment that stuck with me was finding out that my partner and I came from opposite political parties but shared a lot of the same beliefs,” said Jared from Tarrant County College, Texas. “It was really impactful."

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Participant data from the Fall 2024 Unify Challenge College Bowl highlighted the substantial impact and positive shifts:

• 93% said it gave them an opportunity to share their perspective on important issues.
• 80% said it helped them see a new perspective they hadn’t considered before.
• 79% said they felt more comfortable sharing their point of view on political or current events in class (a 35% increase from before the Challenge).
• 78% agreed that Americans share many of the same goals for our country, across party lines (a 32% increase from before the Challenge).  
• 72% said they felt more hopeful about the future of democracy (a 30% increase from before the Challenge).

Data from the inaugural Deep Dive launch also proved to be positive among participants: 

• 97% said their partner's ability to listen to and paraphrase was good, very good, or excellent.
• 72% said they felt more empathy towards their partner. 
• 70% said it gave them more confidence when discussing complex issues with people who hold different views.

With campuswide scalability in place, the Unify America team plans to continue growing the reach and impact of its Civic Gym platform in 2025, fostering a culture of civil discourse and mutual understanding across even more college campuses throughout the country. 

Note to Editors:

• For more information (including data, graphics, maps, and video testimonials), visit:
  • Unify America
  • Unify Challenge College Bowl
  • Deep Dive
  • Overall impact 
• Specific materials:
  • Fall 2024 Unify Challenge College Bowl fact sheet 
  • Video trailer (01:19) about the Unify Challenge College Bowl 
  • Video trailer (01:34) about the Deep Dive