What is Urban Studies
The Urban Studies Designation is a micro-credential awarded to Marywood students who exemplify a community-minded approach to creating impactful change through collective effort and inclusive solutions to social, economic, and environmental challenges in urban areas.Grounded in the liberal arts, the Urban Studies Designation empowers cross-disciplinary thinking and creative action between all university majors through real-world projects and hands-on learning.
Students who complete the Urban Studies Designation will receive recognition on their academic transcript and diploma.
How it works
Pick a Passion
Pick a Course
Pick a Goal
Make Your Credits count for more.
A student chooses the course and the full-time faculty member they would like to partner with to pursue the Urban Studies Designation. In a designated course, students and faculty work together to determine the plan, expectations, and methods of assessment for the Urban Studies SLO/project and how it may be successfully completed through that course.
Professional Development & Culture
Students and faculty work together to create an academic culture that fosters collaboration, communication, and a positive learning environment. Urban Studies Designated courses, projects, and service opportunities empower educators with the ability to reflect on their teaching methods and gain insights into how they can improve their practice. Customizable course projects, goals, and outcomes enables teachers to explore new techniques and strategies leading to greater student satisfaction, a more engaging and supportive academic community, where everyone feels valued and motivated to excel.
Earning Your Urban Studies Designation
Complete a minimum of 18 Urban Studies Credits
Urban Studies Learning Objectives (SLOs) may be added offering in any academic major or department.
Students work collaboratively with faculty to identify how an Urban Studies SLO may be fulfilled by or added to an existing course.
These courses will receive a “US” designation after the course number, identifying them as an Urban Studies Course.
Participate in a minimum of one community urban outreach project of their choosing.
Earning Your Urban Studies Designation
Required: Students are required to: Participate in a minimum of one urban community outreach project of their choosing.
Students can choose from active project offerings, or define the nature of the project for themselves. Architecture students, nursing students, or history students, etc, may all approach this differently.
Selected SLOS
Students may select one of the following learning outcomes for each urban studies designated course.
In this course, students will;
1
Evaluate urban community voices and skills through Jane Jacobs’s beliefs in the power of observation, empathy, and creative action.
2
Propose ways to preserve, celebrate, heal, and/or transform a chosen urban area/neighborhood based on Jane JAcobs’s principles and strategies of the acronym SEE (social, Economic, and Environmental).
3
Develop the ability to understand and analyze systems and policy frameworks that impact the urban environment through the lens of Jane Jacobs’s philosophies and core values.
4
Explore current issues related to urban renewal, neighborhood planning, and citizen participation, with emphasis on Jane JAcobs’s principles and strategies for urban engagement.
5
Learn to create a succinct visual argument by building skills in graphic design, communications, and messaging as a way of building public understanding and support for a chosen urban project/cause.
Program Fee
The total cost for the Urban Studies Designation is $1,200.00
A $200.00 program fee for every (3) credit course that receives a US Designation.
$200.00 x 6 courses = $1,200.00
*The fee structure is based on the designation of a standard 3-credit course offering.
