University of Alaska, Anchorage
Center for Community Engagement & Learning
Undergraduate/Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Civic Engagement http://engage.uaa.alaska.edu/

Unique:

The Certificate in Civic Engagement prepares undergraduates to become active, effective, ethical citizens in their professional and personal lives. Baccalaureate students from any major degree program develop the reflective, analytic, and practical skills to link curricular and co-curricular learning to civic engagement outside the academy through service-learning classes, internships, and community-engaged scholarship and creative activity. The Certificate is intended for motivated students committed to action for the greater good and is recommended of participants in the Bonner Leaders Program. Individuals who have already completed baccalaureate degrees also may enroll. Certificate awaits approval September 2006; upon approval, the certificate will be designated on student transcripts as a certificate degree program.

Website Features:

Offers links to key documents on funding and creating the certificate program; Gives course listing and descriptions; links the program to the Bonner Leader Program; Explains mission, courses, and outcomes; Offers information on campus-community projects, engaged scholarship, values, impact, and student success, knowledge networks, empowering youth, taking care of the environment, graphs on community partner relationships and other important material.

Program Objectives:

1. Estimates enrollment in the certificate program are 10 students in Year One with an increase of 2-3 students per year up to a total enrollment of 18-22 new students per year four years after initiation of the certificate program.
2. Undergraduates will gain competencies in three domains: academic, personal, and civic.
3. Relate service and professional ethics to civic engagement frameworks
4. Translate theoretical perspectives and frameworks of their disciplinary majors into actions solving concrete public problems affecting Alaskan, U.S. and international communities, with substantive emphases on ethics, poverty and sustainability
5. Apply critical thinking skills and empirical evidence to make judgments regarding public problems outside the classroom
6. Transform civic imaginations to enhance abilities of individuals, groups, and communities to embrace a vision for the future.

Structure/Governance:

The Civic Engagement Certificate is an interdisciplinary program, proposing new courses and drawing from already existing courses within students’ majors. Although faculty from the College of Health and Social Welfare and the College of Arts and Sciences are designing and proposing the certificate, no obvious university home exists. Teaching plans: Assistant Director would assist in developing and administering programs for the certificate as well as other activities within the Center for Community Engagement & Learning. A portion of the Assistant Director’s time would be allocated to teaching responsibilities, covering the equivalent of 3 teaching units.

Relationship of Program to Institution’s Mission

UAA is on the leading edge of a national movement that is re-infusing learning with service and community engagement. The Certificate in Civic Engagement provides one pathway for students to embody the University’s core priority of Community Engagement (UAA Academic Plan, draft 12, 4/5/05). The structure of the Certificate will enhance students’ ability to create a coherent academic program out of the existing array of community service learning classes, supplemented by a new foundation class, an individual service learning internship, and a capstone experience. As a transcript award, the Certificate will bestow permanent, formal recognition upon students who make a significant commitment to reflective community engagement while in college.

Foundational Pillars:

The certificate in civic engagement is integrated with co-curricular courses. The program is intense where students work 10 hours per week in community based service optional arrangements. The program is multi-year; it was designed to be completed in three to four years to enhance the integration of learning into that of disciplinary majors. For students who are very focused and/or develop an interest in civic engagement later in their academic careers, it may be completed in as few as two years. This timetable complements the two-year Bonner Leader program. The minor combines newly developed courses with other relevant courses offered by nine different departments located in three Colleges. The program is developmental and sequential, starting with an introductory course and culminating with a capstone course. The program focuses on community engagement, which develops into a politics/public policy arena of interest. A poverty course is required for the certificate program. There are global aspects in the course material but the program does not offer direct international experience.

Program/Course Architecture:

A Lead In Course – Introductory Course entitled, “Introduction to Civic Engagement”
Poverty Courses – Poverty course requirement
International Exposure – International component in materials covered
Full Time Internship –10 hours each week/Community based
Capstone Seminar – Reflective & professional portfolio

Specific Courses of Study:

1. Required Courses
A. CEL-A292 Introduction to Civic Engagement (3 credits)
This foundation class will be taken by all new Certificate students, affording them both a common intellectual and experiential platform on which to build, and an opportunity to bond as a cohort of students engaged in a mutual endeavor.
B. CEL-A395 Civic Engagement Internship (3 credits)
C. Course with poverty or environmental sustainability as a substantive focus. A course that has a Community-based Learning component is preferred.
D. Course with community-building or public policy as a substantive focus (3 credits). A course that has a Community-based Learning component is preferred.
E. Community-based Learning Courses (9 credits). One lower division (100-299) and two upper-division (300-499). One course must include an emphasis on ethics.
F. CEL 395 Civic Engagement Internship (6-9 credits) Or approved alternative Internships ideally will involve students’ travel to rural Alaska or to international locations for an intensive experience (eight or more weeks full-time). However, local internships spread over the academic year required for students’ major degrees would be considered if certain pillars of civic engagement are included.
G. CEL 498 Capstone Project (3-6 credits). Or approved alternative Capstone projects ideally will build on internships. The capstone provides the final integrative experience in which students combine past and present community engagement with GERs, major discipline classes, and other coursework.

2. Electives & Discilplines
A. History
B. Social Work
C. Philosophy
D. Biology
E. Computer Information Systems
F. Education

Learning Outcomes for Students:

To demonstrate the knowledge of:
A. To develop moral dispositions of judgment, civic participation and public commitments related to their personal values
B. To be willing to enter unfamiliar situations with confidence and participate effectively
C. To identify the disciplinary, societal, and cultural values that shape their own and others’ responses to poverty and sustainability
D. To assume responsibility for enacting public uses of their education and civic engagement in there anticipated vocational and personal trajectories.
E. To utilize communication and problem-solving skills (e.g., persuasive communication, listening and deliberation, collaboration and negotiation, public planning) in addressing public problems at multiple levels
F. To evaluate the places, interests and competing demands of others in the community and consider ethical implications to resolving them
G. To demonstrate commitment to resolving public problems beyond their college careers and to fostering others’ involvement
H. To assume leadership roles in groups and organizations capable of taking action on matters of common concern.

Strategies for Bonner Connection

Role of Service: Bonner Leader Program requirement; 10 hours/week

Student Leadership: Bonner Leaders must perform ten weekly hours of community service as well as participate in specific reflection and training activities, as must their counterparts at other Bonner universities. Bonner programs historically have not included formal academic components. Here at UAA, where the emphasis on undergraduate civic engagement has its roots in the service-learning classroom, Bonner Leaders are encouraged to earn the Certificate in Civic Engagement as part of their award. Further information about UAA’s Bonner Leader program is available from Dr. Nancy Andes and Ms. Heather Charton at the CCEL.

Community Partnerships: With 150 community partners and over 45 courses engaged already, UAA ranks among the top universities with service-learning initiatives.