Social Transformation

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 Director: Joel Federman, PhD

The Social Transformation (STR) concentration is where students learn to be scholar-practitioners who link theory to activism and engagement in social issues, and contribute to a body of knowledge that can directly lead to social change based on emancipatory, humanistic, and transpersonal values. Students are provided with a common language and theoretical base from which to address specific concerns, such as violence prevention in schools, and broader system iccuses, usch as social justice, peace, globalization, and institutional "isms" (e.g., racism, sexism.

Students may choose to deepen their knowledge in four certificate areas:

Violence Prevention and Response

Community Health and Development

Peace and Conflict Resolution

Building a Sustainable World

Students completing the Socail Transformation concentration have found a broad range of professional outlets for their training, including: designing a student retention program for Native students, working with the California Attorney General's office on Domestic Violence policy, development of a new model for the emancipation of foster care youth, evaluating community programs for at-risk youth, establishing a program for maintaining economic viability for Tibetan refugees in Nepalese camps, working with NGO's and NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, developing corporate-community partnerships to further environmental education, and creating a community-based model for school improvement. Several are involved in domestic and youth violence prevention and intervention and in diversity training programs. In addition to their organizational and activist work, several graduates teach at the college or university level.