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 semester-long commitments must include approximately 20 hours of engagement sustained over the span of a semester. 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 semester 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
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).