Established in June 2024, the Center for Government and Civic Service (CGCS) is one of Austin Community College District’s (ACC) newest centers—supporting both academic programs and the community at large.
Housed at the Rio Grande Campus in Building 3000, the CGCS was established to enable and empower the ACC community to become effective public servants and civic leaders through skill-building and experiential learning opportunities.
The CGCS is led by Director Bryan Port, who retired from the U.S. Department of Defense after 30 years of combined military and civil service. We spoke with Bryan to learn more about the Center and its programs and services in its inaugural year.
Can you give us a broad overview of what the Center does and how it contributes to ACC’s mission?
The CGCS enables and empowers our students, staff, faculty, and the community to be more impactful and effective civic leaders or public servants to include, perhaps, serving in the government—state, local, or federal. We create initiatives, events, and opportunities that connect skill-building and learning with public service in an environment that allows the participant to build professional relationships.
Could you tell us a little bit about your background and why you took this role?
I was in government—30 years of combined military and federal civil service. I spent the first half of my career as an intelligence officer and the second half as a strategist, primarily as the Director of Strategy for several four-star generals.
I had never thought about retiring from the federal civil service, but over time, I came to believe I could make more of an impact if I went into education. When I was given an early retirement option, I applied to a bunch of jobs at ACC and started about a year and a half ago as an adjunct professor of history. Then I fell into this job—it’s a bit of a dream job. I have a great boss with a great institution, and an opportunity to try and do some things that I think are critically important, and that students will benefit from and also enjoy.
I also do volunteer work, and I’m working on a Ph.D at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m working on my dissertation in American history and volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for kids in the foster care system, trying to make sure their voices are heard and their needs are being met.
How many people work at the Center?
It started as a one-person show. We now have six students who are working there as GROW associates and interns: two Strategic Planners, two Business Operations Managers, one Communication Strategist, and one Strategic Partnership Manager. Within the College, they identify themselves as interns, but I view them as permanent staff members and require them to identify as such.
What kind of opportunities do students who work at the Center have?
Students working at the Center are given the opportunity to design, build, and lead initiatives. In doing so, they learn crucial skills in leadership, management, planning, writing, and communication. Through the initiatives they lead, they also learn about specific topics. For example, they’ve worked on green workforce initiatives and on topics like the structure of city government. Just as important as the skills are the relationships that they are able to develop with individuals, including senior leaders in government, nonprofits, industry, and academia.
Each team member designs and leads a portfolio. We teach them what they need to know, and we let them get out there to learn by doing. Part of our philosophy is that mistakes are okay—we often learn more from mistakes than from successes. So as long as we don’t do anything galactically wrong, we’re good. We’ll learn from it. We’ll get better. Students have the opportunity to explore, experiment, and grow.
They are fully empowered to make decisions on behalf of the Center with my authority to get things done. They design events and initiatives, develop strategic partnerships, and handle complex administrative and management requirements. They think, solve problems, and lead.
Can you walk us through some of the hands-on learning experiences or skill-building opportunities CGCS offers and how they prepare students for careers and leadership in public service?
I would love to talk about each of our student-employees, but due to space constraints, I’ll talk about just one to provide an example. Marisela Perez-Maita leads our Civic Leadership line of effort to include the design and conduct of Civic Leadership Simulations. We did simulations frequently while I was in government. They are an invaluable training tool. Simulations provide students an opportunity to learn and practice leadership skill sets.
Marisela leads in all facets of simulation design and execution, including plotting learning objectives, building scenarios, creating roles, recruiting participants, and directing the actual event. The CGCS built its first simulation, “Virescenia,” to focus on strategic communication and is now building a second simulation, “GeneSys,” that will focus on ethical decision-making in a crisis.
We just ran the second iteration of Virescenia, which focuses on enabling students to learn and practice how to read a room and select and employ communication tactics in a public meeting to achieve specific practical objectives (obtaining information or shaping behaviors). Students assume roles as either a member of government or of the public. Roles included the mayor, the chief of police, the chief of public health, concerned parents, a conspiracy theorist, school teachers, civil rights activists, and more. The participants have time to prepare and then engage in a simulated public meeting. After the meeting, we hold a discussion with subject matter experts (for example, city officials) to reflect on whether and how objectives were achieved or not. Participants have overwhelmingly asserted that they left the simulation more confident and capable of representing themselves and their communities. They also had fun…and we should mention that we feed the participants.
The Honors Program is now giving credit for the simulations to their students toward the fulfillment of their leadership requirements. We have started working with staff and faculty members to design simulations for specific courses. For example, we’re working with Linda Cox in Service Learning, who also teaches ethics, on GeneSys, which will focus on ethical decision-making in a crisis situation. The first iteration is scheduled for April 28, 2025. We will advertise the simulation beginning toward the end of March. More than 40 students have participated in simulations as of the date of this publication.
How does CGCS collaborate with the broader ACC community, including faculty and staff, to enhance student engagement and learning opportunities?
We are the College’s center and are eager to make the CGCS a platform, an opportunity, and a partner for anybody in the College trying to have an impact or connection to our community and our government. They can come and talk to us and see if we can help and be a part of it.
For professors interested in providing a different kind of experience for their students, we are happy to design a simulation for that class, subject matter dependent.
We work with a lot of student groups, such as the computer science club. The CGCS assists in the design and execution of their annual hackathon, RiverHacks. We drew in the City of Austin as a partner this year. Students will develop applications for city-designated themes that could actually wind up being picked up by the city. We are also bringing in companies and other experts to be a part of the hackathon, providing students with professional mentorship and perhaps leads on future jobs.
What types of students would benefit most from getting involved with CGCS, and do they need any prior experience or a specific academic background?
No prior experience or specific academic background is needed. Our efforts will probably resonate most with students interested in nonprofit work, government, politics, management, leadership, or political science. But we also do a lot with technology. So, our cybersecurity and computer science students are also a good fit. The CGCS is eager to work with students from any field to design new initiatives in accordance with their wants and needs.
A web page for the CGCS is under construction. Meanwhile, for more information, contact Bryan Port at [email protected].