Call Your Representatives: Connecting Classroom Learning to Real-world Policy Action

This article presents an in-class exercise that teaches students how to call elected officials about a course-related issue of their choice. The goals are to connect classroom learning with real-life action, to show that contacting elected officials need not be difficult or intimidating, and to help students develop a sense of efficacy that can contribute to ongoing engagement. I describe the exercise and present evidence that it led students to call their elected officials, most for the first time ever. I show that students find the exercise interesting and empowering and that it increases their civic comfort and self-reported likelihood of contacting a representative in the future.