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Are you a Nurturer, Defender, Connector or Amplifier?
It takes all of us to shape our communities and our country for the better. Our democracy has been shaped by many hands. Take this quiz to discover your civic superpowers, and explore where your story fits into our history!
The Civic Superpowers Quiz is presented by AMERICAN HERITAGE® Chocolate, the official dessert of Civic Season and your connection to culinary foodways throughout U.S. history.
Celebrate Your Superpower
Use these frames and graphics to tell the world about your skills – and inspire them to find their own!
Right-click to save images to your desktop, or hold down on mobile to save to camera roll.
Amplifier
You know how to capture the imagination of everyone around you. With creativity and passion, you can translate ideas, making them interesting and easy to understand. Whether on stage or online, your voice makes progress possible.
Inspiration: To really take a stand and get your message across, you’ve got to know your facts. You might start with asking the 5 W’s: Who? What? Where? When? Why? A good example, on a tasty subject, can be found in the History of Chocolate timeline. Let’s time travel – back to 1500 BCE.
Connector
Through your contact list and your commitment, you bring people, ideas, and movements together. You don’t just know the right people — you do the work to connect the dots. You are open-minded and make unlikely alliances, helping build the bridges to overcome obstacles and reach the future we envision, together.
Inspiration: U.S. history is not just about presidents, wars and eras…but also music, food, neighborhoods and fashion? And of course, our favorite – chocolate. Connect the dots and explore a map of historic sites and museums that feature chocolate history. Find one near you, Connector!
Defender
On the front lines, you keep the movement MOVING. You don’t take no for an answer, and people count on you. You aren’t scared of confrontation or getting in trouble for standing up for what you believe in.
Inspiration: Sometimes, the best defense is to help people imagine a world without your cause in it. What would that look like? Professor B., a chocolate historian passionate about – you guessed it! – chocolate, shows the importance of his cause as he asks chefs, foodies and others to take part in “A Day Without Chocolate.” Watch Season 2 here.
Nurturer
You are crucial for sustaining the marathon of change. Do people need to be fed? On it. Does someone need cheering on? You’re there. You know change can’t happen without community, and you care for and support those around you.
Inspiration: The nurturer’s toolkit definitely includes kitchen utensils. And there’s no better case study than soul food, which has nurtured people for centuries, through triumphs and trials, from its roots in West Africa through the emancipation of slavery in the U.S. to today. Chef Adrian Miller recounts this journey – watch the conversation here.
Next: Learn about your Superpower
Meet Nurturers, Connectors, Amplifiers and Defenders who made their mark in history.
Look to the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott of 1956, which required many people to come together to stand up for what they believed in. If the arrest of Defender Rosa Parks was the spark that ignited the movement, then the behind-the-scenes organization of Connector Jo Ann Robinson was the kindling that kept it burning. Georgia Gilmore organized Nurturers to cook and sell food at mass meetings, which fed protestors and helped fund the protest, while Amplifier Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired masses and articulated demands.
Read or listen: Meet more folks from history in this blog post, click through the Civic Season Guidebook below for inspo, or tune into the Democracy Vibe Check podcast produced with WABE Atlanta to explore superpowers in-depth.
Finally: Level-Up Your Skills with Events
Like any skill, we can learn new civic superpowers through practice.
There are over 2,000 activities, events and learning resources available at TheCivicSeason.com to help you grow. When you find activities and resources that interest you, save them to your Civic Season List!
Our Civic Season Guides offer some suggestions to get started – click on their card to dive in.
If you’ve enjoyed your Civic Season or learned something new this summer, be sure to take a pic and share your experience on social media and tag #CivicSeason and @HistoryMadeByUs!