Do you feel called to serve?
The Catholic Civic Leadership Institute finds and forms young Catholics, Christians, and all people of goodwill aged 18 to 26 on America’s college campuses for virtuous service in government, law, business, economics, diplomacy, and public policy.
We’ll train you in the Catholic intellectual tradition and the witness of the saints, and prepare you to bring both to bear on the personal, professional, and policy decisions that shape public life.
Chapter community, fully funded online seminar and residential fellowships, and a lifelong alumni network will sustain you in the public square and send you as a faithful witness into the institutions entrusted with the common good.
Called to lead. Formed in virtue. Sent to serve.
Between freshman year and your first leadership role, something will form you. A political tribe. A corporate culture. A secular ideology. You will not face that decade alone, whether you choose to or not. Other organizations on campus are already competing to form you for partisan ends or secular corporate pipelines. We exist to ensure you never have to choose between your faith and your vocation.
The Church forms you through the sacraments. Senior networks form executives. But from freshman year through your first decade in public life? That is the formation gap we fill, and we fill it on campus, before the world fills it for you.
You’re not just building a resume. You’re being sent into institutions that shape the common good—as a lay missionary. Your workplace will become your mission field.
Everything we teach is rooted in the cardinal virtues and the Catholic intellectual tradition, under diocesan oversight. The tradition challenges every tribe. We form you to think with the Church, not a party.
A three-stage pathway from first contact to lifelong leadership: we find you on campus, form you in virtue, and send you out to lead.
You will be formed alongside undergraduate and graduate students from across the country, studying across all our core areas—law, business, economics, public policy, and more—already enrolled in our online Civitas Seminar.
All fellowships and scholarships are fully funded for selected participants. The formation costs you nothing. You bring the conviction; we provide the formation, the community, and the credential.
We meet students at the intersection of Catholic identity and career direction, on campus and online. The Institute finds high-potential young Catholics through multiple coordinated channels, bringing them into formation through the Civitas Seminar.
The Civitas Seminar is the gateway. Semi-monthly online sessions ground students in the cardinal virtues and the Catholic intellectual tradition through facilitated case studies and the witness of the saints, communal prayer, and guided discussion. Selected fellows continue into the Summer Fellowship, a fully funded two-week residency in Austin that deepens formation in the cardinal virtues, public policy, and the practical craft of leadership.
The Washington and Rome Scholarships place exceptional fellows inside the institutions that shape federal policy and international diplomacy before their careers begin. A lifelong alumni network sustains their witness from undergrad throughout their careers in government, law, business, economics, diplomacy, and public policy.
We don’t just teach ideas—we form leaders. Every dimension of the program is designed to form the competence, conviction, and courage you will need for faithful witness in the public square.
Systematic study of the Catholic intellectual tradition, applied to historical and theoretical case studies and the witness of the saints. The foundation for every decision you will face.
Mass, prayer, spiritual direction, and the sacraments. Because leadership without an interior life does not last, and faithful leaders in public life will face moral pressure their peers do not see.
Training in the craft of leadership: deliberation, public speaking, and persuasive writing. The skills you need in the courtroom, the boardroom, and the committee hearing.
Lifelong cohorts of peers and mentors that sustain faithful witness across a forty-year career in public life, and that send the next generation.
The Institute operates under the full pastoral guidance of the Diocese of Austin and partners with Catholic campus ministries you know and trust. You are not joining something separate from your faith community. You are being formed within it.
The University of Texas at Austin
Texas A&M University
Texas State University
Baylor University
University of Houston
Southern Methodist University
More partnerships in development nationwide. Want us on your campus? Tell us below.
We’re building a national formation institute for young Catholic leaders. Whether you want to launch a chapter on your campus, partner with us as a campus minister, or invest in the next generation of faithful leaders—there’s a place for you here.
Be a founding chapter president on your campus. We give you everything you need to launch.
Campus ministers, clergy, and university administrators—introduce us to the students you already believe in. We do the rest.
Every dollar removes a financial barrier for a young Catholic called to lead. The model compounds: chapters seed new chapters, and the same formation serves fifty students or five hundred at nearly the same cost.