Changemakers Pathways
Students will be able to choose from the following six pathways:
- Technoethics - Courses and activities in this Pathway direct students to explore moral concerns about how technology has impacted and will impact our lives, societies, and the environment. Students critically and ethically engage with questions about how we should use technology, particularly as new and emerging technologies raise novel moral challenges. Students may think about ethical concerns for technology in general, or they can explore the ethical challenges of a specific current technology, such as generative AI.
- Sustainability - Courses and activities in this Pathway expose students to the Earth’s natural resources and sustainable solutions to a broad range of global issues such as needs for food, energy, education, and safe living conditions. Of central concern are issues about the future and how our actions today impact the natural environment for future generations. Students in this pathway can analyze the impact and unintended consequences of human consumption, waste, and industrial processes, and they can explore potential solutions such as renewable energy and innovative agricultural strategies. .
- Healthy Communities - Courses and activities in this Pathway inspire students to consider what makes a community healthy and how we can build and support healthy communities. It may engage with issues in public health policy, or it can consider wider quality of life issues that affect communities, like the availability of food and parks, community policing, and disaster response. Students can explore issues and creative solutions that affect their local communities, or they can think about ways to address global humanitarian problems.
- The Good Life - Courses and activities in this Pathway challenge students to consider what makes a life good and how things like meaning, happiness, well-being, and morality contribute to a good life. This pathway considers the ends we should pursue and value to have a good life, such as family, work, wealth, friendship, etc. Students may engage with different visions and perspectives on the Good Life, from a range of religious, spiritual, and cultural traditions, including perspectives from marginalized groups. This allows an examination of one’s own perspective and the consideration of how society can accommodate divergent visions of the Good Life.
- Identity and Equity - Courses and activities in this Pathway encourage students to consider the various ways individuals identify themselves as members of groups and explores the ways that social forces have led to and sustain inequities between groups. Identities include race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, economic status, disability, political and social movements, and their intersections. Equity may include pay, legal status, social position and recognition, and economic standing. The pathway seeks to understand the challenges of addressing inequities and how these can be remedied to create a more fair and equitable society. .
- Creativity and Design for Change - Courses and activities in this Pathway engage students in creative problem-solving and innovation. Students identify pressing problems in our societies and creatively design solutions. This Pathway may employ art, creative writing, computer programming, technological design, public policy, or other approaches to developing transformative solutions. Students may work collaboratively to gain a deeper understanding of the design process, from concept development to implementation.
