MAJOR
ACADEMICS
A Challenge Worthy of Your Ambition
Each of us wants to live for a purpose. But how do you decide what purpose is worthy of your ambition? Each of us wants to pursue goodness and justice. But how do we know what is good or just? Each of us longs for freedom. But how do you safeguard freedom for yourself and for others?
These questions matter. What is at stake is the direction of our lives and our society. If you are asking these questions, you are in good company. History’s greatest thinkers and doers have asked these questions, too.
At the School of Civic Leadership, students study with faculty members dedicated to the pursuit of truth and wisdom, as part of a community on a mission to find out what it means and what it takes to be free and to live well.
Ready to Lead
SCL’s academic programs respond to the question, “What kind of education do students need to lead in their communities and in their country?”
Civics is the study of the rights and obligations of citizenship. As an academic field of study, civics blends a classical liberal education with the study of American history, law, economics, and political philosophy.
An education in the School of Civic Leadership provides a foundation in the ideas that continue to shape the American project. Through careful study of key texts, students prepare to live well and to sustain American self-government.
Study with SCL Faculty
The University of Texas School of Civic Leadership’s world-class faculty hands on moral and political insight through scholarship and teaching. SCL faculty members invite you to study the distinct inheritance of Western civilization and the American constitutional tradition as part of a larger quest for wisdom.
You’ll love studying with SCL faculty if:
- You want faculty who see your potential and want to help you mature to the next level
- You want high expectations, purposeful work, honest evaluation, and support to succeed
- You want professors who think differently, but share a passion for asking questions that matter
- You want professors who strive to model–and invite you to cultivate–courage, justice, moderation, and wisdom
Thrive Here
You’ll love your time in SCL if:
- You’re excited for the intellectual challenge of reading the great texts of Western civilization and the American tradition
- You find the American story, in both its finest and most difficult moments, worth studying
- You want to combine philosophical and historical reflection with social science and economics to prepare yourself for responsible citizenship
- You want to cultivate intellectual virtues, including attentiveness, respect, desire for truth, open-mindedness, courage, humility, good faith, and good will
- You want to develop the tools of competent communication and deliberation that will prepare you for work in an array of fields
MAJOR IN CIVIC HONORS | MAJOR IN GREAT BOOKS HONORS | MAJOR IN STRATEGY & STATECRAFT
APPLY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS CIVICS HONORS PROGRAM
Fall 2027 admissions to the School of Civic Leadership open on August 1.
The new School of Civic Leadership is home to a community of scholars on a mission to find out what it means and what it takes to be free and to live well.
SCL prepares students for purposeful lives and work in education, government, business, the arts, medicine, culture, law, diplomacy, the military, and more.
