Civic Engagement Certificate
**Applications are no longer being accepted for the Civic Engagement Certificate**
This page is being maintained as a reference for students who are already enrolled in the certificate.
How Will You Change the World this Semester?
The Certificate in Civic Engagement prepares students to become active, effective, ethical citizens in their professional and personal lives. Students develop practical skills to link their learning to community involvement through service-learning experiences, internships, community-based research, and creative activities.
At 22, suffragist Alice Paul started campaigning for women's rights.
The Certificate in Civic Engagement highlights scholarly, community-based engagement in students' major coursework while making connections to academic, personal and civic development of skills and competencies.
Graduates will achieve the outcomes of their majors and be able to:
-
Demonstrate democratic skills, such as communication, problem-solving, and negotiation, necessary for addressing public problems at multiple levels
-
Articulate public uses of their education and civic engagement
-
Synthesize civic imagination and the abilities and needs of individuals, groups, and communities into a vision for the future
-
Compose personal roles and ethical standards for participation in a diverse, global community
This undergraduate certificate prepares students to become active, effective, ethical citizens in their professional and personal lives. Students develop reflective, analytic and practical skills to link their learning to civic engagement through service-learning experiences, internships, community-engaged scholarship and a capstone leadership course. This program highlights scholarly, community-based engagement in students’ major coursework while facilitating connections to a broad spectrum of civic participation.
Program Requirements
Course Listing
CEL A292- Introduction to Civic Engagement
Introduces students to types of civic engagement in a democracy, practices of engagement
and inquiry, and public issues of ethics, environmental sustainability, community
building and human and civil rights through reading, reflections and community inquiry.
A service-learning component is included and a required part of the course.
3 Credit Hours
CEL A392-Civic Engagement: Learning by Giving
Applies learning about the history and practice of philanthropy with an overview of
the non-profit sector and current issues and trends across the state and municipality.
Students review and critique local grant proposals and award grant funds provided
by local and national private benefactors to fulfill their proposals.
3 Credit Hours
CEL A395-Civic Engagement Internship
*or approved alternative
Internship in which student gains intensive experience applying principles of civic
engagement and major-disciplinary knowledge and skills to a community-identified problem.
Students complete approximately 135 hours, usually in a community non-profit or government
agency.
6 Credit Hours
CEL A450- Civic Engagement Leadership Capstone
*or approved alternative
Integrates and applies disciplinary coursework and GER foundational skills of critical
thinking, communication and collaboration with an interdisciplinary focus on civic
responsibility. Critically examines civic pathways for leadership in local, state,
national and/or global contexts through an individual civic engagement project.
3 Credit Hours
15 additional credits are needed for the Certificate and should be outlined in a proposed Plan of Study with the Certificate faculty advisor.
Academic Advising
Contact the Main CCEL Office at 907-785-4062 or uaa.ccel@alaska.edu.
CEL Internship (CEL A395) is required for those enrolled in the Civic Engagement Certificate program, and the 6-credit internship may be completed in one or two semesters. In addition, students declared in any major may take the CEL internship as an upper division elective for 3-9 hours. To learn more, click the button below.