Program Details

Eligibility

Degree seeking and non-degree seeking Boulder undergraduate students in good standing from any discipline will be eligible to participate in the Social Innovation Certificate program.  There will not be a grade point average requirement to enroll in the program; however, students will be required to achieve a C- or better in all coursework that applies toward the certificate. 

How to Enroll

A student who wishes to declare a certificate is instructed to contact the program Director for specific details and instructions. The Director will review the student's credentials and use the Certificate Program Enrollment Form to notify the Office of the Registrar that a student has been approved to pursue a certificate.

Benefits

By training students to be social innovation catalysts, this program will enable graduates to maximize their social impact and be effective in a world that rewards professionals comfortable with change, experimentation, and working across disciplines.  It will prepare students for a variety of careers that “make a difference” and promote the common good, ranging from policymakers, civil servants and social enterprise managers to community organizers, health and environmental scientists, and frontline helping professionals. 

The program will give students numerous opportunities to work with and be mentored by successful social innovators from Boulder (recently voted the most creative city in America) and elsewhere.  Students can develop plans for creating a new social enterprise or implementing solutions within existing organizations.  They can also focus on societal problems they have identified or have been identified by mentors and other experts.

Objectives

The certificate program’s curriculum will provide students with:

  • A substantive understanding of social problems;
  • A methodology for conceiving solutions to such complex problems;
  • A broad set of skills needed to implement solutions in new or existing organizations; and
  • The tools for critically evaluating the effectiveness and sustainability of solutions.