The graduate student experience risks becoming a monastic existence of classes, reading, and research necessary to master a literature, pass comps, and write a thesis. But there exist a number of vibrant communities that graduate students could benefit from interacting with beyond classroom, library, and departmental walls. In this essay, we review a civic engagement activity (CEA) to explore civic engagement at the graduate student level. We begin by noting the benefits CEAs bring to graduate student experience. Next, we provide a case study of a recent CEA that drew a crowd of over 250 students, local media attention, and attendance by citizens of the local community. Lastly, we analyze our CEA experience to draw out general lessons.