Home > Academic Courses and Programs > Spring Seminars
Social Concerns Seminars with an immersion between Saturday, March 9 and Saturday, March 16, 2013
(dates vary depending on the seminar).
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The goal of the Appalachia Seminar is to introduce students to the culture and social issues of the Appalachia region through community-based learning.
The course provides the opportunity for active participation in the community and direct relationship with Appalachian people. Exploration begins in the orientation classes where students become acquainted with the history, culture, and challenges facing the region. During the week in Appalachia students learn from individuals and community-based organizations (focusing on housing, education, health, and the environment). The follow-up classes facilitate analysis and synthesis of insights gained during the week.
L'Arche communities were created by Jean Vanier (winner of the Notre Dame Award for international humanitarian service) to provide places where persons with disabilities and people without disabilities can live and work together in the spirit of the beatitudes. In the process, the unique value and vocation of each person is affirmed. Students will stay in Washington D.C. residential home to worship, serve, and learn from the current L’Arche community residents.
The goal of the Migrant Experiences Seminar is to introduce students to the cultural and social issues surrounding migrant farm labor through experiential learning. Such learning creates a strong foundation of knowledge through direct participation, allowing the development of relationships capable of revealing the diversity, culture, and life challenges of migrant farm workers. Exploration into the plight of migrant farm workers begins in the mandatory preparatory class sessions involving presentations, discussions, videos, and selected readings. The seminar centers on a week-long trip to Immokalee, Florida during the semester break.
(formerly known as the Children and Poverty Seminar; previous Children and Poverty participants would be repeating the course)
The goal of the Youth, Risk, and Resilience Seminar is to educate participants on issues affecting low-income, urban youth living in at-risk environments in America. Topics will include violence, healthcare, education, welfare, homelessness, food insecurity and mental health, and means to promote resilience. Students will begin exploration during orientation sessions, which will examine the current state of youth living in at-risk environments, as well as available resources and developmental support, both public and private. Follow-up class meetings will complete the learning cycle.
This seminar will serve to prepare spring 2012 seminar leaders for immersion experiences over spring break. The seminar aims to improve overall leadership skills, facilitate communal learning across seminars, and uniformly prepare leaders for the specific aspects of Center seminars. The course will consist of approximately 4-6 classes around a particular leadership theme led by a variety of Center staff and faculty. The format for the class will be a 30-minute training session followed by small group discussion. The Experiential Learning Council sponsors the seminar and curriculum will be co-coordinated by student leaders. This seminar will culminate in leading a 2012 immersion seminar. Departmental approval required.
This seminar will examine ethical responsibilities within science funding allocations and the regulation of basic and translational research. Students will be exposed to the policy development and lobbying, government funding, and regulation of both basic science and translational research. Regulation surrounding research and drug development for rare and neglected diseases will also be discussed. The course aims to explore how funds are distributed to scientists and the pathway between discovery at the lab bench and introduction of policy to the general public. Working with Notre Dame’s Federal Relations Team in Washington, D.C. over spring break, students will meet with scientists, multiple federal agencies, and policy makers including the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In preparation for meetings in Washington, five panel sessions will feature speakers with experience in research ethics and integrity, advocating for funding for science, distributing those funds, or working at the intersections of government policy, basic science, physics and engineering technology, environmental science, and clinical research. Offered through the Notre Dame College of Science and the Center for Social Concerns, this course poses a unique opportunity for students to network with various federal funding agencies and policy makers in Washington, D.C.
As American citizens have begun calling for changes to our deteriorating healthcare system, politicians have responded by making health care reform a major issue in the upcoming elections. As voters, we have a responsibility to evaluate our current system as well as the various proposals to reform it. Furthermore, the Catholic Social Tradition invites persons of good will to pursue a healthcare system that raises the dignity of each person. This seminar invites you to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of our healthcare system, explore the possibilities for the future of American healthcare, and ask how modifications might help create the society we hope to become.
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In the United States alone, over 25 million people are affected with mental illness. Countless family members, friends and mental health professionals struggle to understand and help those diagnosed with these confusing and often debilitating diseases. Unless we know someone or struggle with similar issues ourselves, the majority of the rest of us know virtually nothing about the confusing ‘world’ of mental illness. This seminar gives students the opportunity to learn about mental illness from the personal perspective of those most directly impacted by it; those living with it, family members, and health care providers. The goals of this seminar are to help students become more knowledgeable about these diseases and their early warning signs and to develop compassion for those who suffer from them.
Take Ten is a research-based violence prevention program and curriculum designed at the Robinson Community Learning Center. Volunteers work on a weekly basis with schoolchildren of all grades to teach them the skills needed to resolve conflict peacefully. Take Ten’s mission is to provide youth with positive alternatives to violence and build their capacity to make more informed choices when faced with conflict. Students participating in the Take Ten seminar will serve as Take Ten volunteers during the semester (February through April with training in January), being part of a team that works at a school in the area one time per week. Additionally, the readings and reflections will allow students to focus on understanding issues of youth and violence from various perspectives.
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The following seminars do not include an immersion.
Available only to students studying abroad in Santiago, Chile
The Approaches to Poverty and Development Seminar in Santiago, Chile, is a multi-disciplinary course combining experiential and service learning with social analysis, theological reflection and ethical viewpoints. The seminar is taught by Professor Isabel Donoso at the Jesuit University Alberto Hurtado, which has many graduate and undergraduate academic resources in the social sciences, theology, and new forms of education.
The Leadership through Solidarity Seminar seeks to cultivate an understanding of leadership through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching. This seminar includes an experiential learning component as undergraduate students practice relationship building through prayer and service with the South Bend Catholic Worker community. The principles of solidarity and the common good are explored through faith sharing, service learning, and fellowship at the Worker and in the classroom.
Advocacy for the Common Good is a one credit course that aims to develop a shared understanding of advocacy and the common good, cultivating basic skills to help strengthen students' respective advocacy planning and action in pursuit of social justice. This course will be co-facilitated by seasoned advocates and organizers from Catholic Relief Services. The day and a half January 18-19 workshop will introduce students to advocacy tools and skills, including mapping power, navigating the legislative process, mobilizing, developing effective messaging and influencing decision makers. Students will then have six weeks to form into groups to research and implement advocacy campaigns on their respective issues of interest. Each group will be assigned a professional mentor to help facilitate this process. After these six weeks, the entire class will reconvene for the afternoon on March 2 to share their respective group's campaign, including methodology, objectives and results, as well as address challenges and celebrate successes.
