The Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL) teaches a service learning course sequence: "Spectator to Citizen."

This three-course sequence of two-credit courses is designed to provide opportunities for University of Denver students to develop a set of public skills and civic knowledge base that will allow them to actively participate in the public life of their communities.  Specifically, the sequence of courses will help University of Denver students to 1) understand critical policy issues and salient community problems within the Denver metro area and 2) develop a set of public skills that will allow them to actively and skillfully participate in the public life of their communities.

These courses strongly encourage students of diverse backgrounds, politics and values to learn together, and from one another, in a safe and challenging learning environment.

For other service-learning courses offered at DU, visit our Service Learning at DU page.

Sequence Syllabi and Course Descriptions:

Community Organizing (Fall Quarter)
Course Description:  A strong democracy depends on its citizens to use their power, knowledge, ethics and strength to identify problems and work with others to build stronger, healthier communities for all people.  In this course students will learn about the history of community organizing in the United States, and will be provided with opportunities to learn and apply public skills, collect and produce knowledge that improves communities, and develop a collaborative and collective worldview across differences. 

The course is arranged as a 10-week community organizing project.  The first half of each class will include group discussions and activities based on the assigned class topic and readings, and for six class periods the second half of the class will be dedicated to workshop-style community organizing around the final assignments.  In particular, students will define their self interest and individual public lives, build consensus across multiple perspectives, become experts on a  community issue, and then bring this issue back out into the community for dialogue and possibly action.  Throughout the course students will be learning and implementing strategies and techniques of community organizing, culminating in a public dialogue organized, structured, led, and evaluated by students.  The dialogue will be focused on a collective, student-selected community issue.

Denver Urban Issues and Policy (Winter Quarter)
Course Description:  As citizens of the City of Denver it is our responsibility and right to investigate important issues and be involved in developing a city that betters the lives of the people in our communities.  We do this through a community organizing model that includes: research, immersion, and learning of the powers, structures and stakeholders necessary to understand root causes and available processes for social change.  These are tangible skills necessary to live in any democratic community, here in Denver, or around the globe. 

The first half of each class will include group discussions, activities and guest speakers based on the assigned class topics and readings, and for seven class periods the second half of the class will be dedicated to workshop-style organizing around the final assignments.  In this course students will come to understand community not as a homogeneous group of like-minded people, but as a heterogeneous group striving for collective self interest in order to better their communities.  Students will perform both traditional and community-based research necessary to understand Denver?s current issues and policy.  In small groups students will develop an issue-based, one-day Denver Urban Immersion that will run collectively as one full week over spring break.   Over the spring break students of this course will teach their peers, students teaching students, citizens educating citizens, building a network of committed community members at home in the City of Denver, and in any community.

School-Based Civic Engagement (Spring Quarter)
Course Description: Just as a strong democracy depends on its citizens to use their power, knowledge, and skills and work together to build stronger, healthier communities; so too do our schools rely on these fundamental principles to build successful institutions for learning.  This course will provide opportunities for you to engage with a Denver Public School (or urban youth organization) in a meaningful way that will challenge you to think about how our public schools are preparing students to be effective citizens.  We will also examine the role that universities and communities can and should play in the education process.  Students will be expected to take a critical look at their own education experience and compare this experience with the education experience of those with whom you will be working with (at your school placement) this quarter.  Students will learn about the diversity of School-Based Civic Engagement (SBCE) efforts within the CCESL by engaging with our one of partner schools. 

This course is arranged as a 10-week community learning project.  There will be several classes that will take place in the community at one of our partner schools (transportation will be provided if necessary).  Classes will also include group discussions and activities based on the assigned class topic and readings along with your experience in the schools.  Students will also engage in several activities that are part of Public Achievement (PA) in order to better understand how PA fully works within classrooms, and to get a keen awareness around how universities and public schools can work together to improve education.