Course Information

The Class 

To participate in the Project, students must attend a 1-hour orientation with the instructors, which introduces the structure of the course and the expectations for student participants. The RWP course, entitled Health and Social Inequalities, is a two-semester course which totals 9 credit hours. Because the students will be partnered with refugee families, they must agree to take both semesters of the course before they are allowed to enroll, and there is a strict mandatory attendance policy for the course. (Students can take the class for credit in Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Honors, and others.) 
 
In the Fall semester, students spend the first 3 months (August-November) in the classroom learning about practical skills and theoretical concepts related to the refugee experience, such as cross-cultural communication, teaching English as a second language, community resource mapping, needs assessment, advocacy, social inequality, and more. 
 
Toward the end of the Fall semester, the didactic shifts to the practical as Learning Circles and Advocacy begin. Students are paired with refugee partners and they begin to work together on goals for the family, as well as engaging in cultural enrichment for all. The Project continues through the end of the Spring semester with weekly advocacy and supervision, and the Learning Circles.