UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For the third year, Penn State freshmen honors students are inviting the community to join them in deliberative discussions of local, national, and global significance and urgency.

As part of the Rhetoric and Civic Life course offered as a first-year seminar through the College of the Liberal Arts, students host more than 50 opportunities for town and gown to engage together in serious conversations that challenge participants to reflect on the values that shape their decision-making on important topics of the day.

Different in goals and structure of debate, deliberation is group conversation that seeks to find common ground. It invites participants to think through problems and weigh the costs and benefits of various approaches to addressing those problems and invites reflection about the values that drive our choices.

The event runs from Feb. 20 through March 2. Deliberations will take place around State College and are open to the public. For specifics on days, times, locations and topics, visit http://sites.psu.edu/deliberationnation/.

Rhetoric and Civic Life is an honors course offered jointly through the Departments of English and Communication Arts and Sciences and is available for students from the Paterno Fellows Program, Schreyer Honors College, and Millennial Scholars. The course is sponsored by the Center for Democratic Deliberation in the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. To learn more about the course, visit http://sites.psu.edu/pennstatercl/.

To learn more about the Liberal Arts First-Year Experience, visit la.psu.edu/fye.