XSPP-130 - Bridges to Social Justice Academy

Course Description

This 2-Week Academy serves as an introduction to the multiple pathways that you can take toward the creation of a more just and humane world. Grounded in both the Social Change Model of Leadership (SCML) and the Pathways of Public Service and Civic Engagement framework, this academy will provide you with content and context to support your understanding of the injustices and structural oppression perpetuating harm in our society. We will focus on the HOW: the intersecting and necessary ways to create social change through community-engaged research; community organizing and activism; direct service; decolonial philanthropy; advocacy for public policy; and social entrepreneurship for the common good. Through this exploration, you will develop a self-awareness of your own strengths and capacities for participation in work for social change. These two weeks will also provide you the opportunity to explore how your future college studies and careers can contribute to combating injustice and building peace.

Taking advantage of our location in Washington, DC, you will learn directly by engaging with diverse stakeholders from colleagues at policy think tanks to local, national, and international organizations committed to civil, economic, and human rights.

Through site visits, you will also experience Washington, DC, beyond the monuments, and learn about its rich social justice history and the city’s current challenges around racism and inequity. Experiential hands-on activities will provide opportunities for practice in public speaking, facilitation, project design, and listening, led by undergraduate mentors and Georgetown faculty.

Your community will be peer high school students, Hoya mentors, and social justice educators from Georgetown University and Washington, DC. This program concludes with designing a student organization that has a mission to enact social change around a social injustice through at least one of the pathways and grounded in the SCML. Due to the nature of this program, not all students will do the same off-sites. You will earn the certificate based on your full two-week engagement, participation, and attendance.

View our Sample Schedule here! 

How You’ll Benefit

Build awareness of key concepts related to social justice, community engagement, and social change 

Explore social injustices, root causes, impacts, and transformative visions 

Learn from community advocates, policy analysts, and movement leaders 

Work with Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice educators 

Improve your skills in public speaking, project design, listening, and collaboration 

Receive a Certificate of Participation upon successful completion of the full two-week program

Program Format & Subject Areas

As a student in the Pathways to Social Justice Academy, you will spend your time engaged in a combination of class sessions, workshops, small group dialogues, reflection sessions, site visits, and extracurricular activities. You will have the opportunity to explore the following subject areas:

Social justice

Advocacy

Equity

Power

Public speaking

Creative envisioning

Collaboration

Active listening

Solidarity

Community-engaged learning and research

Social impact

Common good