Learning
to Make a Difference
A
Different Kind of College for People Who Want to Make a Difference
For
over 30 years, the College of Public and Community Service (CPCS)
has been a recognized leader in education for social change. CPCS
is a college for people who want to make a difference. It provides
effective and empowering educational opportunities to students
committed to working for change in their communities, workplaces
and professions.
Outcome-Oriented
The College's undergraduate programs offer interested students
a unique competency-based,
outcome-oriented curriculum centered on the study of urban reality
and positive social change. Its educational program is focused
on helping students to develop deeper understanding about the
type and nature of issues affecting urban life and supporting
them in becoming effective professionals whose main focus is the
enhancement of these communities.
Innovative
The College curriculum is designed to meet students where they
are and get them to where they want to go. The College provides
students with innovative
learning options that allow them to find their best
learning style and put them to work toward earning a degree. The
College offers undergraduate students four basic methods of evaluation
for competencies at the College: classroom instruction, project-based
learning, evaluation of prior learning and directed study. Based
on assessment of their skills and needs, students are able to
tailor a learning plan drawing on these different modes of learning
and evaluation to move through the curriculum. The curriculum
encourages students to draw on their professional and community
work and apply it directly to their academic study.
Empowering
Believing that both community and individual empowerment are enhanced
the more community
and college are interwoven, a central focus of the College's
practice is centered on developing recruitment initiatives, educational
programs, and research that bring the College and the community
together to work on the shared goals of community empowerment.
Diverse
In its
practice and in the educational opportunities it provides, CPCS
endeavors to function as an inclusive, democratic and participatory
learning community which promotes diversity, equality and social
justice. CPCS is a diverse learning community. The students who
attend CPCS represent the diversity of the metropolitan community.
They range in age from 18 to 80. A majority are low-income areas;
over 60% are women, and over 40% identify themselves as members
of communities of color.
Supportive
A small college within a large University, CPCS
offers the best of both worlds to its students - small, interactive
classes, close working
relationships with faculty, learning communities, and personalized
attention to their learning goals and needs, with access to the
rich resources that the University provides. CPCS endeavors to
function as an inclusive, democratic, and participatory learning
community which promotes diversity, equality, and social justice
.
Current
and former students say it best. In their words and actions, they
attest to the value of a CPCS education to their own lives and
to their ability to make a difference in the world.
