Social Justice Minor

Students will meet together in an interdisciplinary, seminar-style setting to build a greater understanding of integrative thinking and learning and to add a focus within a social justice context. Students will participate in an off-campus service learning project and critically examine the experience from the perspectives of social work, criminal justice, the law, environmental policy, education, psychology, and additionally consider their experiences in Core, and LEAD.

Students will connect this internship experience with academic learning to enhance their understanding of a chosen aspect of theoretical or practical approaches of their professional field. Within the course, they will develop an internship proposal including their learning outcomes, their final project plan, and their own relevant reading list. They will participate in an internship and a weekly online forum throughout the semester to support their identified learning outcomes. Internship settings will vary to accommodate individual majors or minors.

Students will combine two days of professional work experience with weekly classroom instruction to enhance their understanding of a chosen aspect of theoretical or practical approaches to their professional field. Emphasis will be placed on intercultural communication and cross-cultural analysis of the local workplace, problem solving, and critical thinking. Students will practice self-assessment and professional readiness by developing an internship proposal that includes learning outcomes, a final project plan and their own relevant reading list.

Students explore the origins and dynamics of discrimination and prejudice against certain racial, ethnic, age, and sexual orientation groups in American society and how power, influence, economic status and social policy contribute to and reinforce oppression against such groups. Such information will form the basis for understanding one’s own values, attitudes and beliefs about others. The course will also explore our changing population and celebrate the contributions and uniqueness that diversity brings to American social order.