Community and Civic Engagement Minor

Divisional Home: Division III

Minor Advisor: Andrea Woodward, Rochelle Arms Almengor, and Ashley Cochrane

The minor in Community and Civic Engagement at Berea College equips students with knowledge and skills useful for applying their disciplinary knowledge to contemporary issues in community settings. It is designed to be interdisciplinary and to draw students from diverse academic departments. As students advance through the disciplinary training of their major, the program offers a structured opportunity to participate in sustained community engagement related to their major, practice civic engagement skills, reflect on the relationship between applied and academic coursework, and become familiar with opportunities and challenges of community-engaged Attachment 45 9work. It also provides an opportunity for cohorts of students to learn from the diverse disciplinary perspectives of their peers and appreciate the different perspectives disciplines bring to complex decision-making and problem-solving in communities.  

Degree Requirements

Required Core Courses (2)

A foundations course: SOC/PSC/PSJ 212 and GST 425

Required Distribution Courses (4)

Four distribution courses chosen from each of the focus areas listed below and in accordance with the following guidelines:

  • Two distribution courses must be at either the 200 or 300 level  -Students must choose from a different course rubric for each focus area (so that a total of 4 different rubrics are represented in their distribution courses)
  • Service-learning distribution courses (and ALE courses approved by minor advisors) can count toward both the sustained engagement and distribution requirements
  • No more than 2 credits can be applied to a student’s major or a second minor (though summer experiences such as an internships in a student’s major or minor may count toward the “Intensive Community-Engaged Summer Experience,” and service-learning courses within a student’s major minor can also count toward their Sustained Engagement Experience). 

 

1. Power and inequality: Courses that analyze causes, consequences of, and responses to inequality alongside an examination of power and possibilities for change.

AFR 204: African American Intellectual Thought

APS/HIS 132: Appalachian America

APS 200: Appalachian Challenges & Opportunities

APS/SENS 215: Sustainable Appalachian Communities

APS/AFR/PSJ/SENS/WGS 225: Environmental Justice

APS 229: Contemporary Issues in Appalachia

CFS/ANR 318: Food Policy

CFS 350: Family Law and Policy

CFS 362: Contemporary Family Issues and Poverty

COM/WGS 204: Race, Gender, and Media

ECO 248: Economics of Immigration

EDS 150: Introduction to Education

EDS 349: Education and Culture

HIS/AFR 309: Black Power Beyond Borders

HLT/APS 210: Health in Appalachia

HLT/WGS 236: Women & Health

PHI/PSC 244: Political Philosophy

PSJ 100: Foundations of Peace & Social Justice

SENS 100: Introduction to Sustainability and the Environment

SENS/CHM 140: Geochemistry and Politics of Kentucky 

SENS/ECO 370: Environmental Issues and Public Policy

SOC 100: Sociology of Everyday Life

SOC 110: Problems of American Institutions

SOC/AFR 132: Introduction to Race in America

SOC 202: Crime & Justice

SOC 215: Juvenile Delinquency

SOC 223: Social Stratification and Inequality

WGS 124: Decolonizing Feminism

WGS 200: Institutionalizing Queer and Transgender Studies

WGS/AFR 208: Black Feminist Theory 

 

2. Community and identity: Courses that help students understand the interplay between individual identity, group identity, and societal contexts.

AFR/WGS/ENG 135: African-American Women Writers

AFR/ENG 141: African American Literature

AFR/HIS 165: Introduction to African-American History

AFR/APS 230: Black and Indigenous Appalachia

AFR/HIS 245: Black Urban History

APS 100: Cultures, Values, and Perspectives

APS 121: Appalachian Cultures

APS/ENG 140: Appalachian Literature

APS/MUS 224: Appalachian Music

APS/ANR 334: Appalachian Plants & People

ARH 230: Topics in Latin American Art

ARH 239: Native North American Art & Archaeology

ARH/WGS 243: Women in Art

CFS/SOC/WGS 201: Sexuality in Everyday life

CFS/APS 209: Appalachian Foodways

CFS/PSY 231: Social Gerontology

CFS 356: Variations in Young Children’s Development

HLT/WGS 111: Human Sexuality

PHI 261: Bodies and Sexuality

PSJ/WGS 103: Introduction to Latinx Studies

PSJ 200: Latino Migrations to the U.S.

PSJ 210: Diversity and Social Justice

SOC/APS 330: Community Analysis: Appalachian Case Study

WGS 206: Feminist & Queer Dis/Ability Studies

WGS/THR 233: Queer Theatre 

 

3. Civic literacy: Courses that introduce students to how to engage politically or in democratic processes to address issues, particularly in the context of the United States.

PSC 100: Introduction to the Study of Politics

PSC 110: American Government 

 

4. Civic Skills: Courses that develop knowledge and skills that prepare students to engage effectively in communities toward shared goals.

CFS 245: Community Resources for Families

COM 100: Introduction to Communication

COM/PSJ 112: Nonviolent Communication

COM/PSJ 113: Conflict and Mediation

COM/AFR 305: Interracial Communication

COM/WGS 310: Communication and Gender

HLT 203: Peer Health Education and Promotion

HLT 300: HLT Program Planning and Evaluation 

PHI 104: Morality, Law, & Philosophy

PHI 214: Approaches to Ethics

PHI 241: Science, Technology, and Ethics

PSJ 200: Ethnographic Methods

PSJ 205: Movements and Community Organizing

PSJ 301: Restorative Justice

PSJ 305: Peacebuilding 

 

 

Additional Requirements

1. An Intensive Community-Engaged Summer Experience that is focused on work that more deeply explores at least one of the key content areas of the CCE minor. This experience will be proposed by the student and approved by CCE minor advisors. The experience must include at least 300 hours of work over the span of at least 8 weeks with a public-facing organization (nonprofit, community-based, governmental, or private sector) focused on applied work that is responsive to community-identified initiatives or needs. Students will choose from among the following existing community-based experiences:

• Internship

• Community-based research (CBR) within URCPP or other research that meets established criteria

• Community-Based Labor Position, either in Berea or through the Off-Campus Summer Labor Experience 

• EPG Summer Internship

• Bonner Scholar Summer of Service

• Other, equivalent structured summer experience, with approval (e.g., summer AmeriCorps) from minor advisors

 

2. Sustained community engagement, totaling 4 experiences over at least 2 terms. This can be through any combination of designated service-learning course(s), CELTS volunteer programs, or other approved community-engaged activities. Each of the term-long commitments must include approximately 20 hours of engagement sustained over the span of a term. For example, a typical service-learning course or weekly CELTS volunteer commitment involves approximately 2 hours of engagement per week over about 10 weeks of the semester. This requirement will be a “completion” element of the minor, and reflection on the sustained community engagement experiences will be integrated into the synthesizing experience of the minor.  Students can retroactively count participation in previous term long civic engagement experiences. Students can also count a course that they are taking for one of the key content areas of the minor, if that course is a designated service-learning course. In unique cases, students may propose an alternate community-engaged activity. Labor positions will not qualify to meet this requirement. 

Admission to the minor

Students must interview with a Minor Advisor

• A “C” or higher is required in SOC/PSC/PSJ 212

• No more than two (2) total credits can be transferred (including from study abroad) to meet minor requirements

• SOC/PSC/PSJ 212 cannot be transferred 

Requirements to Minor in Community and Civic Engagement:

The Community and Civic Engagement minor requirements are composed of the following, with no more than 2 credits applicable to a student’s major or a second minor (though summer experiences such as an internships in a student’s major or minor may count toward the “Intensive Community-Engaged Summer Experience,” and service-learning courses within a student’s major or minor can also count toward their Sustained Engagement Experience).