South Africa has been a study abroad destination for Arcadia University since 2008 and we are as committed as ever to our presence there. In fact, we’re excited to introduce a new display of that commitment through the spring 2019 launch of our newest program, Arcadia in Cape Town.
Arcadia in Cape Town will tether students’ community development interests to their academics and anchor our program in the community more clearly than we have in the past. We have partnered with Cornerstone Institute, a private college offering Bachelors and Masters degrees, with a mission as clear as the sign on their campus’s main facade: “Learn to change the world.”
As our Resident Director, Dr. Alan Jansen put it, “Cornerstone is central to the social justice work of the city. It has, for decades, been known as a meeting place and a venue for great ideas and debate, and the institution’s connections to Cape Town’s communities are unparalleled.”
With coursework in Sociology and Community Development, Management and Entrepreneurship, Media and Communication, and Psychology, in addition to our signature core course taught by Dr. Jansen, students will have the opportunity to extend their degree paths with a curriculum that is intentionally linked to the assets and needs of Cape Town. In fact, students may choose a field work course in any of those disciplines which includes 120 hours of community engagement.
Arcadia in Cape Town will offer students a more intimate learning experience in bustling Cape Town. Whereas UCT and UWC are large research institutions with significant international populations, Cornerstone Institute is a teaching institution drawing Capetonian students and offering small class sizes and personal student support.
Our students in Cape Town have always been likely to volunteer. More than 9 in 10 of our participants enrolled at UCT have volunteered on a weekly basis. However, until now, that work hasn’t been linked to students’ academic pursuits in a formal way. By offering service-learning coursework through Cornerstone, Arcadia in Cape Town will be able to ask more pointed questions of students about how they may bring their knowledge and skills to bear on the problems of our world after graduation.
Our partnerships with the University of Cape Town and University of Western Cape remain strong, and we’re thrilled to build on that strength. Beginning in Spring 2019, students applying to those programs will have the option to opt-in to a field-work course at Cornerstone Institute. Plus, all of our students will take our signature core course on Cornerstone’s campus.
Through Arcadia in Cape Town, we look forward to helping students take advantage of all the community-based learning Cape Town has to offer and to encouraging them to reflect on how that learning will affect their citizenship and careers post graduation.
Please note that we have also added new course options for students studying at the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape.