Curriculum
The curriculum consists of 12 hours of core workshops and 6 hours of elective workshops. A number of these workshops already occur within existing leadership programs (e.g., Emerging Leaders Program, Orientation Leader Training, Resident Advisor Training, etc.), and all of these are also offered as standalone workshops throughout the academic year.
Core Workshops
The Cycle of Socialization and Liberation
This workshop aims to help us understand the way in which we are socialized to play certain roles, how we are affected by issues of oppression, and how we help maintain an oppressive system based upon power. Additionally, participants will discuss the nature of oppression and how they perpetuate it on an individual, organization, and systematic level. Finally, participants will learn opportunities for creating social change and taking themselves toward empowerment or liberation.
Intercultural Communication
This workshop aims to increase understanding of intercultural communication (verbal and nonverabl). Tangible skills participants will receive from this workshop will enhance their overall intercultural competence, increase their effectiveness when working to resolve disagreements across cultures, and help them to create more inclusive campus spaces at Augsburg.
Intercultural Conflict Styles
This workshop makes use of the Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) Inventory, which describes an individual’s preferred approach or style for resolving conflict by reflecting the individual’s culturally learned patterns for dealing with disagreements and expressing emotions. Additionally, this workshop will not only teach individuals about their own preferred approach and style, but also about the preferred approaches and styles of others. Finally, this workshop will give participants tangible skills that can be used when navigating conflict across cultural differences.
Organizing 101
Interested in learning about community organizing but don’t know where to start? This workshop is for you. Learn some of the foundational concepts of organizing to get started on your change making journey. Participants in this workshop will gain an understanding of relational power, the difference between public and private relationships, and how self-interest motivates us to act.
Power & Privilege
This workshop will explore the meaning behind power and its different manifestations, as well as how that impacts one’s privilege based on social identity characteristics. Students will also learn about their own social identity characteristics, and how the intersections between various identities impact how they navigate the world and access life resources.
Power Mapping
People interested in promoting positive social change— through public work, civic action, advocacy and other vehicles—need to be aware of who else cares about their cause, and the political and social power structures in play. Social change agents need tools to access resources and to put their ideas into action. Power mapping gives participants a way to think about different kinds of power, and a set of tools to access the power needed to make things happen.
Unpacking Bias & Microaggressions
This workshop provides participants with an introduction to understanding and responding to unconscious bias during interactions, as well as explores the hidden and pervasive nature of unconscious bias. Additionally, this workshop allows participants to explore microaggressions across cultures as well as through social identities related to gender, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, ability, age, and more. Finally, participants will learn tips and examples for learning how to identify, minimize, and respond to microaggressions in specific scenarios.
Electives
Students may take as many electives as they wish, either on or off campus. Off-campus workshops must be approved by emailing campuslife@augsburg.edu, along with a detailed description of the event and how it connects to one of the program’s learning outcomes (see above).
On-campus electives include but are not limited to:
- Brave Space Training
- Consent & Bystander Intervention Training
- Disability as Diversity
- Forum on Workplace Inclusion (some workshops)
- Interfaith Ally Training
- MLK Day of Action (some workshops)
- Self-Interest Training