Leadership Through Service

4.00 Credits
In this course students will investigate and analyze the theories and practices that surround several key social issues, which impact the local community and communities around the world. Through the linking of theory, local issues, and cross-cultural contexts, this course will demonstrate not only the strengths of community involvement and local resources, but also the potential for enacting change on a global scale, one community at a time. The seminar will provide students with a forum for exploring the backgrounds and responses to social problems through a variety of disciplinary lenses, including anthropology, philosophy, political science, and human geography. The course project work will then enable students to utilize ethnographic methods to identify an issue of interest related to this material in the surrounding community, engage in participant observation, practice visual and written documentation, and finally, critically analyze the problem and make recommendations for an action plan.

4.00 Credits
An introduction to the basic concepts, theories and principles of oral communication as applied to a speaking situation. The course develops competence in oral communication through performance and critical analysis of student skills in a variety of speaking formats. Audience analysis, content discovery, communication strategies, arrangement of ideas, the use of evidence and reasoning to support claims, language and style, voice and other delivery skills and ethical considerations will be explored in this course. Fills the General Education Oral Communication requirement.

4.00 Credits
A group of writing seminars designed to build on knowledge and skills acquired in WP 101. Each seminar focuses on a central subject such as Myths of the Hero, Images of Good and Evil, Travel and Exploration, and The Individual and Society. Readings include works of fiction and analysis from a variety of theoretical perspectives (psychology, sociology, literature and cultural criticism). Writing assignments help students extend their writing skills to such intellectually challenging tasks as analyzing texts, evaluating theories, and using concepts to explore problems. Each student will write approximately 40 pages of prose, including short essays, revisions and an extended essay investigating a problem in the student's major field of interest.) Prerequisite: WP 101.