Bridges to Social Justice Academy

This 3-Week Academy serves as an introduction to the multiple pathways that you can take toward the creation of a more just and humane world. Grounded in both the Social Change Model of Leadership (SCML) and the Pathways of Public Service and Civic Engagement framework, this academy will provide you with content and context to support your understanding of the injustices and structural oppression perpetuating harm in our society. We will focus on the HOW: the intersecting and necessary ways to create social change through community-engaged research, community organizing and activism, direct service, decolonial philanthropy, advocacy for public policy, and social entrepreneurship for the common good. Through this exploration, you will develop a self-awareness of your own values and capacities for participation in work for social change. These three weeks will also provide you with the opportunity to explore how your future college studies and careers can contribute to combating injustice and peacebuilding. Taking advantage of our location in Washington, DC, you will learn directly by engaging with diverse stakeholders from colleagues at policy think tanks to local, national, and international organizations committed to civil, economic, and human rights. Through site visits, you will also experience Washington, DC, beyond the monuments, and learn about its rich social justice history and the city’s current challenges around racism and inequity. Experiential hands-on activities will provide opportunities for practice in public speaking, facilitation, project design, and listening, led by undergraduate mentors and Georgetown faculty. Your community will be peer high school students, Hoya mentors, and educators from Georgetown University and Washington, DC. This program concludes with designing a student organization that has a mission to enact social change around a social injustice through at least one of the pathways and is grounded in the SCML. Due to the nature of this program, not all students will do the same off-sites. You will earn the certificate based on your full three-week engagement, participation, and attendance.