Two new minors set to begin this fall are aimed at giving
students an opportunity to get hands-on experience in organizations
dealing with public service and problems concerning Southern
California.
Civic engagement and urban and regional studies minors are both
interdisciplinary and open to students of all majors.
The civic-engagement minor, which is offered by the UCLA College
and is being inaugurated today, would provide students with a core
curriculum on community building, governance and civic services,
according to the UCLA Catalog.
Kathy O’Byrne, director of the UCLA Center for Community
Learning, said the new minor is part of a national movement for
college students to engage in the community during their
undergraduate years. Through the part of the program called
“UCLA in LA,” students and faculty work with various
public agencies in the city.
The idea for the minor came three years ago when UCLA was given
a grant to find “innovative ways to integrate academic
coursework with meaningful off-campus work,” O’Byrne
said.
Students in the minor would choose elective classes related to
an internship in the L.A. area, the state or the nation, and
complete community service as part of their coursework.
For the minor’s capstone project, students must complete a
research project using their internship experience to address a
civic issue, such as health care, education or housing.
The other courses for the minor are from a number of different
departments including history, sociology, philosophy, economics and
several ethnic studies, according to the UCLA Catalog.
In addition to the internship, students are also required to
complete a course with a service-learning requirement in which they
go off campus to perform work for organizations that deal with
issues discussed in the courses, O’Byrne said.
Like the civic-engagement minor, urban and regional studies also
has an off-campus service component.
This minor, offered by the UCLA School of Public Policy and
Social Research, allows students to study Southern California
concerns such as immigration, poverty, the environment,
transportation and natural resources, according to the UCLA
Catalog.
The UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research already
offers graduate degrees in urban planning, but faculty said they
believed there was a need for undergraduates to learn about urban
issues in the city and their complexity, along with solutions, from
a multidisciplinary perspective, said Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris,
chair and professor of urban planning.
Loukaitou-Sideris emphasized that the courses for the urban and
regional planning minor would be taught by “very well-known
professors,” not by graduate students.
For the service-learning project, students work for 30 hours a
quarter, choosing from a number of organizations dealing with urban
issues in the L.A. area, such as the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority, community-development offices and nonprofit housing
organizations, Loukaitou-Sideris said.
This service-learning project is one of two options for the
minor’s capstone project, the alternative being a research
project addressing an urban issue.