“ . . . the University seeks to cultivate in its students not only an appreciation for the great achievements of human beings but also a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice and oppression that burden the lives of so many. The aim is to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice.”
-University of Notre Dame Mission Statement
Challenge Yourself to Learn More About Poverty
The Minor in Poverty Studies contributes to Notre Dame's Mission by requiring its students to examine poverty, social injustice, and oppression from the perspectives of the social sciences, the humanities, and law.
The Poverty minor is truly interdisciplinary. Its faculty hail from the Departments of Africana Studies, American Studies, Economics and Policy Studies, Psychology, Sociology, and Theology, and the Center for Social Concerns.
Integrate Classroom Knowledge with Real World Experience
The structure of the minor allows students to synthesize intellectual learning and practical experiences. It features a gateway course that introduces students to the nature, causes, and consequences of poverty.
Once students finish the gateway course, they move on to three experiential learning credits and three elective courses. The final requirement is a capstone seminar or a special research project.
Play a Part in Something Bigger
The minor in Poverty Studies is closely affiliated with the Shepherd program, which was instituted by the Shepherd Consortium, a group of ten diverse institutions of higher education united by a common educational mission: integration of curricular and co-curricular interdisciplinary and discipline-based study sustained over at least two years focusing on poverty and human capabilities.
The Shepherd program requires the same courses as the minor in Poverty Studies. Its signature internship program fulfills experiential learning credits for the minor.
The Shepherd Program, Minor in Poverty Studies, and Center for Social Concerns, also collaborate on an annual lecture series, which will be announced later in the 2007-08 school year.