Service-Learning Courses
Please see below for a full listing of the service-learning courses offered at Duquesne University. Please note, not all sections of these courses contain a service-learning component, and not all of these courses are offered every semester. For full details on what classes and sections are being offered in the current semester, please visit the Class Lookup Feature in DORI. In DORI, those classes and sections that fulfill the service-learning requirement of the Core Curriculum carry the UCSL Attribute. If a class does not have the UCSL attribute, it will not count toward a students’ graduation requirement.
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ATHT 412 |
Uses the service-learning component to help teach and create interest in the area of community needs with relation to health and safety in youth sports. The senior athletic training students are placed with a local community and youth athletic organization to help develop the emergency action plans and standard operating procedures for their sports/recreation venues. |
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COSC 100
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This course puts Computer Science concepts to use by requiring students to teach computer skills to individuals who have little or no prior experience with computers. Although virtually all Duquesne students are experienced users of computer technology, this course requires students to be good tutors of computer technology, which will result in a deeper understanding of computer concepts, terminology, and the circumstances of individuals who have little access to computers and the Internet. |
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CLDR 405W |
This course explores values and skills that allow leaders to make a positive impact on the societies in which they live. With a central theme of leadership, Duquesne University students in the School of Leadership and Professional Advancement ask themselves in this course how the skills they have developed are preparing them to address the social injustices they see in their world. The course is writing-intensive and integrates service-learning into ideas surrounding leadership and social change. |
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CLPR 121C |
In the Civitas learning community, students participate in various political campaigns, voter registration drives, and tutoring at an after-school program, in order to better reflect on the definitions and implications of the concepts of "citizen," "community," and "nation." |
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CLPR 122C
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In the Fides learning community, students participate in various faith-based social service organizations in order to better understand how religious and philosophical beliefs effect the communities we live in. At Shepherd's Heart and Weil Academy, students will assist in an after school program for grammar-school children. Students may also participate in providing a hot meal at the Brashear Association, provided by the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community. |
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CLPR 123C |
In the Litterae Learning Community, students learn how to become more active readers and writers of texts. In addition to exploring the role that texts play in the shaping of communities and the self, students also cultivate an appreciation of texts that engage the diversity of humanity. By serving as "conversation partners" and tutors at the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, our students develop a deeper understanding of diversity as a course theme, and as an aspect of humanity. |
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CLPR 124C
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In the Narratio learning community, students look at how individual at community identities are constructed, and at the role that narrative plays in this. Students gain a more concrete understanding of the community and narrative by serving at a community food bank. |
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CLPR 125C
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In the Orbis learning community, students develop their understanding and perspectives on global human rights issues by working with the ESL (English as a Second Language) department at Duquesne University. |
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CLPR 126C
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In the Personae learning community, we are concerned with the personalities, parts, roles, and characters that shape who we are: as persons and as members of social groups. Students serve at a local YMCA in order to enhance our knowledge of social justice as part of our personal role in society. |
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CLPR 129C
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In the Ratio learning community, students look at the interdependent relationship that holds between people and nature. In order to see this interdependence in a specific way, students will conduct a survey that evaluates the use of public green space. |
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CLPR 130C
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In the Judicium learning community, students reflect on the concepts of “citizenship,” “truth,” and “justice,” particularly in the context of social policty and criminal law. Student’s reflection on these themes is augmented by holding classes with incarcerated individuals at the county jail. |
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CLPR 250 & 251
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The Community Engagement Scholar Seminar uses service-learning to bring to life a curriculum focused on theories and practices of community building and social change. Students enrolled in the seminar each have an intensive placement at one of eighteen different agencies and their work either focuses on building that non-profit organization’s capacity or enhancing college access and readiness for local youth |
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COMM 114 |
Exploring Intercultural Communication examines cultural diversity on the interpersonal level. Instead of trivializing intercultural communication into a set of travel guide do’s and don’ts, this service-learning course applies the foundational theory of intercultural communication to lived-world dialogue in the urban context of Pittsburgh. Students in this course will have the opportunity to engage in activities related to oral history and urban dialogue in one of Pittsburgh’s several underserved communities. Currently students are focusing on Hazelwood and the Hill District. |
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COMM 330 |
IMC Functions I exposes students to the theory and practices needed to begin work in an IMC internship. In this class students work in small PR teams for a practicum project where they serve a nonprofit by providing some element of an integrated marketing campaign for a public relations project. Students use PR to help increase a non-profit organization’s capacity. Interaction occurs with the client inside and outside of the classroom. Ultimately students provide a final campaign pitch that can provide the cornerstone of a PR portfolio. Several of the community partners have worked in the area of environmental education. |
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COMM 430 |
Instructs students in the principles of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for Public Relations contexts. Interpersonal, organizational, and managerial strategies are integrated through theories of persuasion. Students learn rhetorical versatility and responsiveness in managing dialogue with diverse publics. This versatility is based on principles of persuasion, intercultural communication, and crisis communication management for organizations. The course prepares students for advanced internships and employment in Integrated Marketing Communication contexts. Class projects center on service-learning where students write marketing plans for nonprofit organizations. These projects result in a portfolio that demonstrates a student’s ability to manage a client’s image, reputation, and marketplace relationships. |
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EDFD 207
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Field Observation V helps students cultivate a repertoire of strategies to use in performing their tutorial service with students in grades K-12 as well as a sense of the importance of service within the community and lessons of civic responsibility. These strategies include lesson and session planning, communication skills, inter-cultural competence and are developed, through observations of tutoring sessions followed by several opportunities to tutor prior to and in preparation for a permanent assignment as a tutor. These experiences equip students to properly select, implement, and evaluate specific methods to use in their sessions and to enhance their work in the community through reflection activities such as readings, discussions, and poster sessions. |
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EDFD 208 |
Field Observation VI combines inside and outside of the classroom components. Students perform a minimum of 20 hours of service as tutors serving students in grades K-12. Service sites include schools and community agencies. In class, students engage in diverse experiences such as group discussions, journals, readings, and speaker presentations that reinforce and further develop skills and actively support their learning. The reading and discussion sequence in particular gives focus to meanings of civic engagement and encourages students to examine issues of social justice and connect them to their service experiences. |
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HIST 396
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Public History: Intro & Issues, introduces students to a rich field of historical practice. It surveys the methods, topics, practices, and opportunities of public history, and Service Learning is integral to the goals of the course. Service Learning allows students to connect class work to community work in the range of venues where the public meets history and history informs the public. |
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IHP 203W |
Students learn first-hand and through published information about a community near Duquesne University, then select and carry out an appropriate project with community partners to improve conditions in that community. |
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LTFL102 |
Service learning is used in LTFL 102 to examine ethical issues in the classroom. This service learning experience also provides our first-year aspiring teachers the opportunity for hands-on teaching experience through the implementation of the Junior Achievement curriculum. |
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MGMT 368W
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MGMT 368W, "Global Business Ethics and Social Responsibility", uses service learning to expose students to situations where they can identify real-life ethical issues related to business, and also to give them hands-on experience with observing how business organizations benefit from community engagement.The students are completing service hours with the various organizations to explore the organization’s social ethics policy and their commitment to corporate/organization social responsibility. |
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MLSP 203, 01 |
Students in Spanish 203 create games and other activities that they can play with young Costa Rican children and can use to help teach them English. In traveling to Costa Rica to engage in this activity, the Duquesne students will experience Costa Rican culture first hand and will have numerous opportunities to practice and communicate with the kids and with others in Spanish. |
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MUAP 140, MUED 091 & 092, MUED 111W, MUED 113W, MUPF 155W & 156W, MUTH 114W
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Within piano classes, students use service-learning as a means to implement basic piano skills, related practical piano theory, harmonization, improvisation, and transposition while providing much needed community music programming. This programming ranges from performance to music education in a variety of community settings such as urban hospitals, early-childhood centers, and assisted-living facilities, among others. |
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OCCT 511L & 511W
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Students in Clinical Reasoning I learn foundational theory of clinical and professional reasoning and develop these skills through community-based service learning activity. During this course, students spend a minimum of 2 hrs/week for 10 weeks, at a local community agency, observing and getting to know clients and staff and conducting an assets and needs assessment focused on occupational performance, health and wellness and quality of life. From this experience and in collaboration with CBO staff, students create a program proposal and timeline for a 10-week client-centered, occupation focused program they propose to carry out in Clinical Reasoning II, during the Spring 2011 semester. In a round table format at the end of the fall semester, CBO staff, students and faculty discuss the proposal, edit it if needed and determine next steps for the spring semester. |
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OCCT 512L & 512W |
Students learn advanced clinical and professional reasoning theory and develop these skills through their service learning activity, carrying out a 10 week client-centered, occupation-focused program within each community agency. OT students work in small groups during Fall 2010 to develop these 10-week programs that address interests and needs identified by community agency staff and clients. Students evaluate the outcomes of their programs and present their findings to the community agency at the end of the semester. |
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PHIL 207
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Students visit various animal rescues or a handicapped riding facility to gain a better understanding of the personalities and behaviors of various animals. Based on their service learning experience and interaction with the animals, students are asked to evaluate the moral status of non-human animals and develop their own position in relation to animal rights. |
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PHIL 216W
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This course uses service-learning in way that affords students the opportunity to work with a number of pre-selected community agencies whose work relates to justice issues such as, racial justice, economic justice, universal health care (as an instance of economic justice and distributive justice), and gender equality. The students gain first-hand experience of the issues, services and legislative advocacy of community agencies to complement their study of social justice. Students engage in carefully designed reflection activities that address the service, the discipline, and their own experiences in ways that encourage further understanding of the course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility. |
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PHIL 255W |
Students work with a environmental organization to assist them in various information gathering projects related to specific technologies. The service learning experience allows students to evaluate the philosophical claim that technology is value laden not value neutral and that the choice of a technology has both ethical and social implications. |
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PHSL 477W |
Service Learning in the School of Pharmacy affords each pharmacy student an opportunity to select one of many organizations or institutions serving the special needs of a particular population and apply the student’s knowledge and skills in pharmacy practice to assist the organization or institution in fulfilling its mission and achieving its organizational goals. Each student is required to reflectively record his/her experiences at the site and complete a written exposition on a topic relevant to the specific service learning experience. |
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PSYC 480-01 |
In Psychology and Social Engagement, students apply principles of community psychology, migration theories, and mental-health counseling to facilitate the psychological acculturation of recently-arrived refugees. Activities in the field vary from ESL tutoring to weekly in-home visit to provide support to families, to the delivery of acculturation workshops. On average, students provide service for 2-3 hours every week. |
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PSYC 480-02 |
Within this section of Psychology of Social Engagement, service-learning is used as a major element of the senior-level capstone experience that addresses a complex project involving the Mt. Washington community’s current use of and wishes for Mt. Washington green spaces. In this way, students explore psychology of place and community as well as ecological psychology. The students study the controversial intersection between green space use in a neighborhood and the needs of the street homeless who make encampments in local parks, and are helping to develop resources that can assist neighborhood groups as well as homeless advocacy agencies. |
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SLP 360 |
This course engages students in meaningful community service experiences related to the field of speech language with academic learning, focusing on critical, reflective thinking, and civic responsibility. These experiences enhance student personal and interpersonal development, which is important in interacting with patients / clients, caregivers, and other health care providers / personal. Priority is placed on student involvement, exposure to culturally diverse populations, and the development of professional communication skills and acceptable professional behavior. |
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SOCI 214 |
The service-learning aspect of the Helping Process course requires students to engage their developing skills and insights in community service settings. This enriches the learning and invites critical reflection on the utility and application of approaches covered in class |
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SPRG 108
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This seminar is designed to help BSNES students explore the interrelationship of science, social engagement and service action projects. In order to accommodate an emphasis on rigorous integration between science content and career development, undergraduate research opportunities and student-faculty partnerships, BSNES seeks to offer a service learning program that will build sustainable connections between Duquesne University and the Greater Pittsburgh community. |
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UCOR 152 |
This course uses service-learning as a means to explore the adequacy and relevance of ethical concepts in the Christian and Buddhist traditions (e.g. love, mercy, compassion) as well as to gain a more nuanced view of poverty. Students will be working with the Homeless Children's Education Fund and interacting with children in a variety of locations. |
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UPNS 107 |
This course prepares students for active and responsible community participation. Students will learn the skills, knowledge and competencies necessary for this type of participation. Students learn the process of reflection as a means of linking their service experience to course content throughout the curriculum and recognizing the importance of service. |