Spring 2008
Spring 2008:
Undergraduate
RLGN 1086/3186 Catholic Social Teaching
- Instructor: Sister Carla Kovack
The role of the Catholic Church as an active participant in social reform finds its foundation in Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. This course examines the church’s social teaching since that time and invites the student to engage in concrete experiences of service with agencies which address one of the main principles of the church’s teaching. Students will integrate knowledge and engagement of Catholic social teaching through insights gleaned from work in the community, and individual and communal reflection experiences.
Each student will perform 20 hours of service during the semester in work with our community partner, St Vincent’s Dining Room. Students will reflect on their own service learning experiences in light of the principles of CST with our community partner, through class discussions and in an individually written journal.
Bus 4032 Taxation for Business
- Instructor: Dan Jordan
ENGL 1004 Expository Writing
- Instructor: Sister Aaron Winkelman
English 1004 is a University-level writing course that emphasizes the writing of expository essays, including essay structure, thesis idea, the relation between thesis and rhetorical modes—e.g., example, comparison and contrast, and argument—as well as organization and correctness in grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and spelling. It also examines many forms of American English. One of the principal methods for achieving the learning outcomes of the course is Service-Learning in partnership with the Canal Alliance, Davidson Middle School, County Community School, and Coleman Elementary in San Rafael.
Colloquium –– Cultural Heritage 2312: Native American Studies
This colloquium will explore the multi-faceted world of Native Americans by investigating their perceptions of the relationship between the material and spiritual worlds as represented in art, story-telling, and tribal histories and governing organizations. A significant component of this colloquium is the service-learning project, which will allow students, under the direction of instructors and the Executive Director of the Marin Museum of the American Indian, to gain direct experience with American Indian life by participating in the creation of a traveling trunk.
ARTH 3133: Native American Images & Art
- Instructor: Sandy Chin & Arthur Scott
This class surveys historical Native American artifacts-basketry, skin work, masks, and totem poles-as well as examines the functions and forms of these art objects with special attention to their social, cultural, and historical contexts. Moreover, this class will explore the images of Native Americans produced by non-Native American artists through the prism of Manifest destiny and the myth of Cowboys and Indians.
Service-learning is a component of this course: students will have hands on experience with native culture. This will be accomplished through partnership with Marin Museum of the American Indian. The key service activity involves the creation of a Traveling Trunk filled of Native American cultural objects geared for Fifth Graders. Students are responsible for developing the educational information accompanying the objects. Students could also be asked to help the Museum in its California educational programs for elementary school teachers as well as in the planning of community events or other activities.
HIST 3015 African History & Culture
- Instructor: Martin Anderson
This is an introductory survey course on African history from ancient times to the present. The course will focus on specific regions of sub-Saharan Africa, including the Horn of Africa, East Africa, the Congo, and South Africa. The goals of the course are for students to demonstrate an understanding of the history of African peoples, the cultural diversity of Africa, and Africa’s place in world history. There will be a service-learning component to the course for upper division students who agree to participate. Students will work with The World Family, and reflect on their experience in relationship to the readings on Ethiopian history and aid organizations in Africa. It is expected they will assist the community partner in completing several projects.
NUR 4150 Community Health & Nursing
- Instructor: Cris Bolla
This course is an introduction to population-focused nursing practice. The course utilizes our National Health Objectives, public health core functions, and the nursing process as the basis for health promotion, health protection, disease prevention, health maintenance, health restoration, and health surveillance of individuals, families, aggregates, and communities at the local, state, national, and global levels. The course emphasizes the needs of vulnerable populations across the lifespan, and examines socioeconomic, cultural, gendered, racial and political dimensions of vulnerability and risk.
Thursday is our off-site day at the Umbrella Project. The Umbrella Project is a community health, service-learning, outreach program, designed to provide the vulnerable elderly and disabled residents of Marin Housing Authority and Senior Access communities with health promotion services provided by Community Health Nursing and Occupational Therapy students of Dominican University of California (DUC). Home visiting will focus on medication management, safety, falls risk, nutrition, depression risk, and cognitive assessment. Home visits may often be made by an RN student and OT student together or RN students paired depending on the client need.
RLGN 1070/3170 Spirit of the Earth
Instructor: Nancy Wiens
The purpose of this course is to explore some of the ways religion is widely understood and formally studied. Within religion, one contemporary focus of Christian spirituality includes the challenge of developing a sustainable relationship between humans and the rest of nature and developing an awareness of humanity as part of Nature. This course engages in the academic study of Christian spirituality as a layered reflection on the ways that various kinds of human-nature relationships impact both the human and non-human world.
Through interdisciplinary means, we will consider various schools of thought and spiritual practices on a wide array of relationships between humanity and the rest of nature. The course also includes service-learning as a structured learning experience that combines community service in Nature with academic reflection. Because Christian spirituality focuses on the complexity of lived experience, a central goal of the class is to grow in integrating critical reflective skills, affective knowledge, and visceral awareness from experiences in and with Nature. Thus, this course approaches religion as both a dynamic social and cultural phenomenon that deserves reasoned reflection and a matter of personal belief and practice.
SCS 3034/WGS 3034 Alternative Lifestyles
- Instructor: Thomas Burke
This course will explore the social and cultural implications of a variety of non-heteronormative lifestyles including: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT), intentional living communities, consciously single adult, and monasticism. Queer Theory will be examined. A service-learning project with a community non-profit will apply theoretical concepts through work with a community serving non-profit organization. Students will work with Marin AIDS Project on research and advocacy regarding HIV/AIDS prevention and related policy. Through this participation students will have the opportunity to be a teacher and a learner, a server and a served.
BIO 1550 Nutrition
- Instructor: Lynne Marie LoPresto, MS, RD
This course covers the fundamental aspects of human nutrition and metabolism including the basic biochemistry and physiological function of dietary protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins and minerals in the human body. The US Dietary Guidelines, MyPyramid and a dietary analysis program will be used to demonstrate dietary assessment techniques and as tools for nutrition education. Student will have 3 opportunities to adapt these materials to educate children in an elementary school classroom about healthy eating habits. The course also includes a module on food production, pesticide use, food processing and safe food handling. We will conclude with overview of food insecurity and world hunger issues which includes introduction to principles of sustainability and the prevention of environmental degradation.
PHIL 3520 Self, Community, and Service: Ethics of Love and Responsibility
- Instructor: Julia van der Ryn
If not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I?
–– Rabbi Hillel
This course presents philosophy as a living, breathing process of meaning-making, of seeking to make sense of who and why we are and what we wish to become, especially in relation to others. TThe class texts will focus on modern interpretations and approaches to foundational themes in moral philosophy. Each probes a different aspect of the specific dilemmas and opportunities that we face in the world today–– as autonomous and unique individuals and as parts of a larger social/cultural/political body.
Our understanding of key themes will be deepened through a 25 hour service component that allows for active cultivation and expression of core values in the local community. Service is an integral part of this course as it allows us to bridge theory to practice within an academic context that supports and deepens our understanding of this experience through relevant texts, discussion, and reflection.
HON 3500 Self, Community, and Service: Ethical Theory and Practice
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Instructor: Julia van der Ryn
This course examines traditional and contemporary movements in ethical theory regarding questions of selfhood, authentic relation to others, and ethical action. We will delve into a range of philosophical thought in this exploration the connection between ethics, personal autonomy and sense of meaning, and our responsibility to and interdependence on others.
Our understanding of key themes will be deepened through a 25-hour service component that allows for active cultivation and expression of core values in the local community. Service is an integral part of this course as it allows us to bridge theory to practice within an academic context that supports and deepens our understanding of this experience through relevant texts, discussion, and reflection. Students will chose to work with an established community partner with a focus that will also add an enriching experience to their academic major: Youth Court, Canal Alliance, Marin Aids Project, School Environmental Education Docents, Homeward Bound.
Ukiah Campus
HUM 3500 Cultural Implications for Environmental Sustainability
- Instructor: Freeda Burnstad
In this course we will examine human interactions with the environment from an individual level to the global scale while putting theory into practice through service with local organizations. We will explore our own sense of self in relationship to our environment and learn about different cultural perspectives of the self as it relates to the natural world. Students will learn about human impacts on the environment throughout the ages, the environmental movement during the last 100 years and the environmental crisis facing humanity today. The course will aim to develop the students' sense of awareness and responsibility, use reflective journaling to express the variety of emotions and ideas that arise when examining our global environmental predicament, and focus on organizations, activities and lifestyle choices that will enable students to proactively address global sustainability at a local level.
This course will explore challenges and consider solutions to topics like energy, global warming, forest protection, pollution, population, food, water etc. As the cliché goes we will “Think Globally and Act Locally.” Service Learning placements will be with organizations taking steps towards local sustainability by providing skills and resources so that our community becomes less dependent on fossil fuel for basic resources such as food and energy, and in a way that is in better equilibrium with the local ecology.
