Learning Communities and Cohorts

At CPCS we recognize that our greatest asset is our student body. Each semester, we enroll a group of interested and interesting students who are committed to developing their own potential and to putting those efforts back to work in their communities and workplaces. We bring in students who share a commitment to public and community service and to social justice. The skills and resources our students bring with them and share with each other provide for some of the richest learning experiences possible.

Recognizing that some groups of students come to CPCS with similar backgrounds and similar interests, in recent years CPCS has developed several special “cohort” programs that bring together students who share a particular interest or focus in their educational goals. These students have the opportunity to work together as a group on a portion of the CPCS curriculum, to work together on exploring issues that are particular relevant to their communities' needs, and to benefit from support programs that are tailored to meet them.

Sometimes students are specifically recruited to particular cohorts, such as immigrant and refugee leaders who form the CIRCLE cohort (Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Leadership Empowerment) or low income women who have been recruited to the Women in Community Development cohort. Both of these cohorts are examples of programs within the college that recruit students from particular communities of interest to come into the College and focus part of their work on issues that are particularly relevant to their leadership development and to needs and interests of their communities.

Other times, “cohorts” are created at the College when students with a particular set of interests come together in a particular class or project, form connections as a group and then choose to continue to work together on some portion of the curriculum around issues of common interest.