Building the America We Want
The America I Want initiative moves civics beyond the classroom, grounding it in direct student engagement and community interaction. At its core, the program centers on students talking with one another and with members of their communities about a fundamental civic question: What kind of America do they want to live in—and help shape?
Through a dedicated digital platform, students share their perspectives by school, state, region, and other demographics, while also examining national patterns and trends. Using word clouds as a primary visual tool, the program provides a concrete starting point for discussion and debate—opening the door to deeper understanding, new possibilities, and, ultimately, civic action.
America’s Word Cloud — Beginning in the Northeast
America’s First Youth-Powered Word Cloud
The national Word Cloud is the culmination of polling and interviews conducted by students in schools and communities across the country. This first iteration reflects the voices of students and communities in the Northeast, our initial region of focus. As schools and communities nationwide join the initiative, the Word Cloud will continue to grow and evolve—showing how local perspectives come together to form a national picture.
So what do these words signify? Do they describe aspirations—or basic conditions that should already exist? Are they endpoints, or the preconditions of a healthy democracy? How do we move from experience to levers of change? Who holds the power to make change? How do we turn words into definitions—and definitions into action? These are some of the questions already driving, and that will continue to drive, discussion in civics classrooms across the country
Experiencing Democracy by Practicing It
The America I Want puts students at the center of their own learning and engagement. They interview and poll peers and community members, return data to the classroom, and lead inquiry and discussions. While the civics teacher offers guidance, it is the students who take the lead in deepening their understanding of democracy.
The Program: Step-by-Step
Join the Conversation to Shape America’s Future
Step 1: Speak Up
The program is introduced to the whole school as a collaborative effort. The stated mission is to capture the most accurate picture of what students and their community want for America. In the classroom, the civics teacher reviews the questionnaire, which will be the basis for interviews and data collection. Students collectively craft a script and learn how to conduct interviews, rehearsing with their classmates. Over the semester, students interview their peers and members of the community.
Gather Aspirations for America
Step 2: Listen
During the interviewing process, students invite their peers to express their visions for America, ensuring the anonymity of their responses. At the conclusion of each conversation, interviewees are asked to share two words that best capture their aspirations for the country. Additionally, student interviewers collect specific demographic information through a structured questionnaire. Using the Linley platform, students input the words and data, which are then compiled into a spreadsheet titled “The Sheet.”
Ignite Discussion in Classrooms
Step 3: Analyze
Under the guidance of their civic teacher, students review the data and words collected on “The Sheet.” They examine the meanings, underlying values, and intentions behind the words. Discussions spark insights and interpretations, words are edited and rationalized before being sent to a data bank for transformation into thought-provoking Word Clouds. The discussions promote critical thinking and an understanding of diverse viewpoints, emphasizing the importance of how to think rather than what to think.
Unite Students and Communities
Word Cloud : Consensus and Divergence
Step 4: Visualize
Word clouds are powerful tools for visualizing Americans' aspirations for their country, captivating audiences with their immediate visual appeal. The size of each word correlates with its frequency, enabling viewers to quickly identify key themes and concepts. Additionally, word clouds provide simplicity and clarity, making it easier for teachers to initiate discussions and encourage students to explore the words and their meanings more deeply. Furthermore, they can effectively represent the qualitative data that students gather from their surveys and interviews.
Unite Students and Communities
Step 5: Connect
The program’s first phase culminates in a student-led meeting where students, community members, and local representatives come together to discuss the findings of the students’ research. Using the Word Clouds as a catalyst for discussion, participants explore similarities and differences at the school, community, state, and national levels. This engagement fosters a lively dialogue between generations, encouraging the sharing of diverse perspectives while defining actionable steps that can lead to change.
Engage Students Across the Country
Step 5: Expand
If America is too vast to know itself, as someone once said, our platform will bridge that gap by fostering immensely rich discussions between students across the country. From Florida to Alaska and Maine to Hawaii, students can analyze the similarities and differences expressed in their Word Clouds—whether from affluent areas, poorer communities, urban centers, or Native American reservations. Through in-person or Zoom discussions, these students will get to know each other, engaging deeply with the representations and nuances within their word clouds. Thus, a national conversation about America has begun.
Our Civic Digital Platform
Our specially designed civic digital platform is the technical foundation of The America I Want initiative. It enables students to collect insights from interviews, organize and analyze the results across multiple demographics, and compare perspectives within their school, across their state, and nationwide. Through the platform, patterns, contrasts, and shared concerns become visible. A student in Vermont can compare results with those from Mississippi; students in Florida can see how their priorities align—or differ—from those in Alaska. In this way, students place their own experiences in a broader national context. For civics teachers, the platform is both a powerful classroom tool and a shared workspace that connects educators across schools and states. It is through this civic digital platform that students and communities across the country begin to see one another’s ideas—and freely discuss them with each other.
How the Word Clouds Build and Flow: From Micro to Macro
Individual voices combine - school by school, community by community - into a national portrait.
SCHOOL
Community
State
National
Vermont is our pilot state
Teachers, Are You Ready to Make Our Students’ Voices Heard?"
Our team will guide you through each step of the program, providing you with a comprehensive manual filled with insights and best practices from schools across the country. Don’t miss out on being part of an American conversation—get in touch today!
Chris Sheehan- Author/ Editor
Influential Voices: Listening, Discussing and Making Things Happen
Our program draws in leaders who are willing to listen, engage, and learn alongside students. As students discuss and debate the issues raised in their classrooms and across schools, they begin to identify concrete pathways toward the country they want to build. Working together with community leaders and legislators, students move their ideas beyond conversation and toward action—legislative and otherwise.
The America I Want Video Submissions
At the conclusion of each interview with peers and community members, students will invite participants to record a 30 second video beginning with the words “The America I Want Is…” Here are some fascinating examples.
Invest in Our Next Generation of Citizens and Leaders
Our initiative is the result of more than three years of development and testing, funded entirely by the Linley Foundation. Its launch has proven remarkably successful with teachers, students and community members alike. Your investment will allow us to scale this civics initiative—opening it to schools and communities across the country. Our immediate goal is to engage at least one school in every state, establishing a truly national presence before opening the initiative to schools nationwide. We have begun a national conversation led by students. By supporting this work, you are helping cultivate a generation that leaves school civically literate and practiced in participation—ready to engage in a democracy that depends on the voices of ordinary citizens.