UNXD 130 CBL: Social Action
Students collaborating in a classroom exercise around power and privilege.
Students in CBL course “Environmental Peacebuilding” working with neighbors at D.C. community-based organization, Soilful City.
Participants in Environmental Peacebuilding course gathering in community garden.
Registration/interest form for UNXD 130 CBL: Social Action for the Fall 2023 semester is due by 9am ET on Friday, September 1, 2023 which is the last day of add/drop. Email csjcbl@georgetown.edu with questions.
Our Model
UNXD 130 CBL: Social Action is a 1-credit course through Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service (CSJ) that offers students the opportunity to integrate their academic studies with community engagement experience in Washington, DC. Through reflection, UNXD 130 students link a course in which they are enrolled with community-based service and social justice work.
The 1-credit course is a substantial commitment that requires concentrated effort and a willingness to analyze one’s self and important social justice issues. Throughout the semester, students discover how knowledge and action can support and advance one another in the promotion of social justice.
Reach out to csjcbl@georgetown.edu for more information about UNXD 130: Social Action if you:
- are a student looking for more information on connecting to a community partner or a course for UNXD 130;
- are a professor wishing to promote UNXD 130 through a course that you teach;
- represent a community-based organization who would like to host a UNXD 130 student;
- have any inquiries regarding UNXD 130.
How to Enroll
Program specifics:
Students must apply to UNXD 130 in conjunction with one course in which they are already enrolled and to which the community-based service work is clearly linked.
Please note that:
- Enrollment in UNXD 130 is contingent upon acceptance to the program through CSJ.
- UNXD 130 is open to second-semester first-year students until the last semester of graduation
- Applications for UNXD 130 are accepted on a rolling basis, ending the last day of add/drop.
- A student may enroll in UNXD 130 up to three times.
Register for UNXD 130 CBL: Social Action. Interest forms for UNXD 130: Social Action open on the first day of registration and are accepted until the last day of the add/drop period.
Requirements for community partnerships:
- Community-based work should take place in/with a community-based organization (CBO). For UNXD 130, a CBO is defined as a: government agency, non-profit organization, non-governmental organization or school that has, in part, a social justice mission.
- Community-based work should meet both the needs of the CBO and the learning outcome goals of the course.
- Community-based work should be in direct service, policy analysis, research, and/or advocacy work.
- Community-based work should engage the student with individuals or communities of need and with issues related to social justice, community development and/or access to basic human needs and resources.
- Community work must be performed over the course of the semester – approximately 3-4 hours per week for 10 weeks, for a semester total between 30 and 40 hours.
- During the Fall 2023 semester, CBO/work placements will be VIRTUAL and IN-PERSON, following all University and Washington, DC COVID-19 guidelines.
Course Components
Over the course of the semester, students in UNXD 130 will:
- Formalize an agreement to serve approximately 3-4 hours per week for 10 weeks (30-40 hours per semester) with a CBO;
- Create/write and submit 3-4 reflective writing assignments and contribute short reflections weekly to a shared course Discussion Board and comment on your peers’ submissions.
- Submit weekly micro-reflections via CANVAS and comment on your peers’ submissions.
- These requirements are intended to encourage students to consider the connections between the community work and classroom-based learning, as they pertain to social justice and personal development.
Example of a UNXD 130 student:
Harry Hoya is a sophomore at Georgetown who is interested in how languages are learned. Harry spends 5 hours a week as a tutor with the DC Schools Project, through which he teaches English to a 10 year-old boy who recently immigrated to Washington, DC from Guatemala City. Harry applies to UNXD 130 because he is also enrolled in a 3-credit Linguistics course, How Languages are Learned, and wants to think explicitly about the relationship between his work with DC Schools and his studies in Linguistics. Harry will require the approval of the program director at the DC Schools Project, and notify the professor of How Languages are Learned once enrolled.