CSP students take a sequence of four courses (one each semester) that center on work with local community organizations from an asset-based perspective:

• Learning through Community Engagement: The Good Society  SRVCLRNG 293H
• Tools for Democratic Change  SRVCLRNG 393TH
• Public Policy and Citizen Action  PUBHLTH 499N
• Organizing: People, Power, and Change  PUBHLTH 499O

These courses satisfy four of the six required courses for the certificate in civic engagement and public service and other university and departmental requirements.

Students typically spend 4 or more hours/week with a local community organization, deepening their collective work over the two years in CSP.

Students work together with community members on community-identified goals. They critically examine what constitutes just and effective community engagement and root causes of systemic injustice—learning through action, reflection, connection to course content, and other sources. See Partner page for community organizations listings.

CSP Course Descriptions

SRVCLRNG 293H, Learning through Community Engagement: The Good Society 4 credits

This is the first of four courses in the Community Scholars Program. In this course, students are encouraged to unleash their imaginations to envision the social structures that would characterize a truly good society. Students will explore themes that cross boundaries of race, ethnicity, class, and other aspects of social identity and will examine case studies and cross-cultural models that will help to generate ideas about alternative ways of structuring societies. Pedagogically, the course is driven by an asset-based approach that enables students to build on and benefit from every individual’s strengths and potential, both in the classroom and in collaboration with community members. 

Throughout this course (and throughout each of the following three courses), each student will participate in a weekly service placement with a community-based organization which works to improve the quality of life for its constituents. Preparing for and learning from these experiences will be a major component of the course. This course satisfies the General Education requirements SB and U. 

SRVCLRNG 393TH: Tools for Democratic Change 4 credits

This course is the continuation of the “The Good Society” 293H. Students explore and engage with practical applications that can be used for organizing toward social, economic, and political justice. Methodologies such as compassionate social action, participatory action research, and  asset-based community assessment are explored during this semester. Students hone skills in the areas of public speaking, group facilitation, group negotiation, and conflict management and produce small group projects drawn from their community engagement experiences and learning in class.

PUBHLTH 499N: Public Policy and Citizen Action 4 credits

This course, the third in the four-course sequence, explores how public policy forms a critical part of the context for all of our social life and how to analyze, shape, and strategize to change policy. With this critical perspective, students explore how policy is created at the local, state, and national levels and how citizens can impact the policy process to address their concerns and work toward the common good. As individuals or as part of a team, participants identify a specific public policy issue that connects to their community engagement, research the issue, and advocate for a specific policy outcome. 

This course fulfills the first semester of the honors thesis/project requirement. 

PUBHLTH 499O: Organizing: People, Power, and Change 4 credits

In this final course in the Community Scholars Program, students examine frameworks by which people organize and mobilize others to work toward structural change. As individuals or in teams, students use this framework to identify issues of concern to them (in coordination with the work they are doing with their community partner) and research and design an organizing project or component of a campaign. In addition, students take part in actions that give them hands-on experience with various components of organizing campaigns. The course integrates a history and framework of organizing within U.S. and international models and practice in the skills of organizing.

This course fulfills the second semester of the honors thesis/project requirement.