Monday/Wednesday: 4:00-5:20

Being creative is about solving problems or approaching opportunities in novel and valuable ways. This course is designed to help ALL students better harness their full creative potential – whether you think: “I am not creative” or “I already have more ideas than I can handle”, this class will help you come up with more creative ideas that offer more value and have greater impact on the world. Although creativity has been studied by nearly every professional domain, this course focuses on creativity as a driver of organizational innovation – from non-profits to small businesses and large corporations to students’ own entrepreneurial startups, creativity and innovation are critical to providing value and ensuring long-term survival. Throughout this course students will develop important life skills while learning to creatively solve problems through a number of real-world innovation challenges. No matter what career or profession you are going into, being more creative and appreciating how and why modern organizations function the way that they do will help you to be more valuable, more employable, more innovative, and more entrepreneurial.

Monday/Wednesday 4:00-5:20

Explore the complexity and diversity of American society through the study of sport and leisure. To what extent does the way we play or spectate sports, the way we plan or experience leisure time, reflect American values? As we trace a brief history of the United States through the lens of sport and leisure, we will observe how concepts of freedom, democracy and equality are tested through time. Issues of race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and socio-economic class will be prominent, as we observe American ideals both upheld and contradicted in the context of the way Americans recreate.

Tuesday 3:30-4:50/Thursday on line (Hybrid)

Do you listen to hip hop, spend all your time in Second Life, dress up like a cartoon character and go to anime fairs, or go skateboarding every day with your friends? Then you are part of the phenomenon called youth culture. Often related to gender, race, class and socio-economic circumstances, youth cultures enable young people to try on identities as they work their way to a clearer sense of self. Empowered by new technology tools and with the luxury of infinite virtual space, young people today can explore identities in ways not available to previous generations. Students in this class will investigate several youth cultures, looking closely at what it means to belong. They will also come to appreciate how the media and marketing construct youth identities and define youth cultures around the world.

Monday/Wednesday 4:00-5:20

We are all drowning in data, and so is your future employer. Data pour in from sources as diverse as social media, customer loyalty programs, weather stations, smartphones, and credit card purchases. How can you make sense of it all? Those that can turn raw data into insight will be tomorrow’s decision-makers; those that can solve problems and communicate using data will be tomorrow’s leaders. This course will teach you how to harness the power of data by mastering the ways it is stored, organized, and analyzed to enable better decisions. You will get hands-on experience by solving problems using a variety of powerful, computer-based data tools virtually every organization uses. You will also learn to make more impactful and persuasive presentations by learning the key principles of presenting data visually.

Tuesday/Thursday 3:30-4:50

This course provides an overview of the theory, research, and practice of communication and social influence. Students will be introduced to risk, political, and conflict communication techniques and cutting-edge research and how it all applies and/or relates to current events and contemporary culture. Career paths and opportunities for Communication and Social Influence majors are also explored.

Tuesday/Thursday 3:30-4:50

Explores urban ecosystems and methods of improving and sustaining urban environments using the City of Philadelphia as a living laboratory. Students learn about urban ecology, urban field experiments, and the work required to sustain green infrastructure within a city landscape. As a Community-Based Learning (CBL) course, students engage in ten hours of field work and environmental stewardship which can range from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Tree Tender training, tree planting, restoring urban ecological systems and vacant lots, working in sustainable urban agriculture and/or greening school rooftops.

Monday/Wednesday 4:00-5:20

Learn about the experience of African Americans through the lens of the U.S. legal system. U.S. law, which first defined African Americans as less than human, eventually declared discrimination illegal, and remains both an expression and an instrument of change at the intersection of race and equality. As you study this evolution, you will reflect on relevant current events, and explore your own responses to the kind of everyday encounters that continually arise in our pluralistic society. Can race be used as a factor in hiring, in college admissions? Is race a factor for you in dating, marriage, adoption? We explore issues like these on both broad social and personal dimensions.
NOTE: Limited availability