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Contact Us

202-885-3879

impactscholars@american.edu

Contact:
Amanda Harrison
Assistant Director, Honors and Scholars Programs

DC Community Impact Scholars 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016 United States

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Where Scholarship Meets Action

All first-year students admittedÌýto the DC Community Impact Scholars program will enroll in an exclusive section of Complex Problems and Community ScholarsÌýLab during their fall semester. In the spring semester, students will continue to build on their learning from the fall through enrollment in the second part of the Community Scholars Lab, where they will start learning about the unique research methods associated with community-based participatory action research.

In their sophomore year, Impact Scholars engage in a yearlong course in which they complete, as a cohort and led by faculty, a research project with a community partner. It's where scholarship meets action!

Fall Courses

ÌýAll first-year Impact ScholarsÌýwill enroll in the DC Community Impact Scholars Lab I and choose one section ofÌýComplex Problems.

CORE-106 Music, Mass Movements, and Democracy Ìý

Professor Natalie HopkinsonÌý

This seminar explores the questions of how and why music penetrates public consciousness at the individual and collective level, and how American music traditions such as country music and go-go reflect aspects of our culture. The course unpacks the invisible power of music over lives-- how music can influence how we feel about ourselves and others, thoughts, and actions at both subconscious and conscious levels. Through course readings, interactive exercises, guest speakers and field trips, students delve into the rich legacy of music as a lens to understand global politics, economics, religion, technology, and culture.

CORE-106 Community Smartphone Documentary [tent.]

Professor Kyle Brannon

How do we use modern media techniques to engage ethically with community stories? What skills does a smartphone filmmaker need to execute successful media?ÌýSmart phone filmmaking is part of ourÌýlives, whether casually through social media posts, or more deliberate structured storytelling. As a ubiquitous storytelling tool it now can be accessed by people in a wide realm of disciplines to tell stories that wouldn’t have been told through video before everyone had such a robust image-making tool in their pockets. The broader diverse access allows for new voices both in front of, and behind, the camera. Incoming students already have the rudimentary skills of using their smartphones, but how do they use these tools to explore their own point of view and tell stories that engage our community at large?

IDIS-101 Community Impact Scholars Lab I
Amanda Harrison

In this multidisciplinary courseÌýtaken by all first-semester Impact Scholars, students learn the principles of responsible and ethical engagement with DC communities. This lab will focus on preparation for and beginning service in the DC community, emphasizing cultural humility, understanding systemic inequities, and gaining the historical and contemporary context of issues facing DC communities.Ìý

Sophomore Impact Scholars enroll in the first of a two-course sequence in the fall semester.

This course is the first in a two-course sequence in which students are guided through a hands-on community-based participatory research project with a local nonprofit community partner. The course emphasizes relationship building between students and the community partner, developing content knowledge related to the partner's focus area, and planning the research project.

Spring Course

First-year Impact Scholars take the second lab and continue their community-based learning hours.

Introduction to community-based participatory action research and its methodologies. Focus will be on ethical conduct of research using interviews, focus groups, surveys, observation, and photo voice.

Sophomores continue their community-based research project from the spring.

This course is the second in a two-course sequence in which students are guided through a hands-on community-based participatory research project with a local nonprofit community partner. The course builds on IDIS-341 by continuing to develop a relationship with the community partner as students engage in data collection, analysis, and visualization; confer with the partner on methods and findings; propose an action plan; revise analyses and action plans; and produce polished deliverables.