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Community-Engaged Honors Program

Digging Deep: Sixth College Launches Innovative Honors Program

Sixth College's Community-Engaged Honors Program featured in UC San Diego Today on January 16, 2025!

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The Sixth College Community-Engaged Honors Program is a cohort-based, small seminar program designed for highly motivated first- and second-year students interested in the process of engaging in community and building human connections through the lens of Cultural Studies. The program's core concepts—community engagement, critical media literacy, and impactful composition—reflect CAT's belief that the ability to analyze and produce writing and media are at the core of affecting positive social change.

Over the three-course sequence, students will be challenged to expand their awareness of the ways in which media and rhetoric impact their lives and their communities. These courses will empower students to locate their own agency and apply it to identifying and solving community-based problems. Ultimately, students who complete the program will come away with the skills and tools needed to be critical thinkers, lifelong learners, and changemakers.

Group

For the 2025-2026 cohort, no more than twenty-four students will be accepted into the program. Currently this program is only available to non-transfer students, but we hope to introduce transfer version students in the near future.

Eligibility Criteria

  • First- or second-year student
  • Enrolled in CAT 1 during the application quarter
  • Not have previously taken CAT 2 or CAT 3

Important Dates

  • Application opens: Monday, October 6, 2025
  • Submission deadline: Sunday, October 26, 2025

 

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Learning Objectives

The Community-Engaged Honors Program aims to develop students who are...

Critical Thinkers

By facilitating a social consciousness through the introduction of critical frameworks and theories, students will be encouraged to analyze the world around them, in particular dominant cultural narratives and norms.

Lifelong Learners

By encouraging students to take ownership of their learning, they will discover their own intrinsic and personal motivations for learning. Students will find a sense of enjoyment and develop curiosity to continue learning beyond college.

Changemakers

By providing students opportunities to put their knowledge into action through civic and community engagement, students will develop a sense of responsibility and empowerment to become agents of change in their own communities.

Program Benefits

Cohort Model

Small, seminar-style classes allow for individualized mentorship and the opportunity to develop strong relationships with peers, professors, and community partners.

Service Learning

Contribute to the wellbeing of local communities and organizations through mutually beneficial volunteer opportunities.

Professional Development

Partnerships with community organizations offer the chance to build professional skills and networks across San Diego.

Formal Acknowledgement

A certificate of completion and an end-of-year celebration will honor students who successfully complete the program.

Course Sequence

In order to successfully complete the Community-Engaged Honors Program, accepted students must take the three-course sequence outlined below by the time they graduate.

Winter Quarter: CAT 2CE

During the winter quarter of the year students begin the program, they will take CAT 2CE.

Spring Quarter: CAT 3CE

During the spring quarter after taking CAT 2CE, students will take CAT 3CE. CAT 3CE fulfills the university Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement.

Future Quarter: CAT 90 or CAT 124

Before graduation, students will participate in further community engagement through either CAT 90 or CAT 124. CAT 124 and CAT 90 fulfill the experiential learning requirement for Sixth College's general education requirements.

Program Timeline

Students interested in joining the 2025-2026 cohort of the Community-Engaged Honors Program will apply during Fall 2025 and, if accepted, begin the course sequence in Winter 2026.

Past Projects

Check out an example of a CAT 3CE final project: a children's book educating elementary students about a climate topic.

"Disruption in the Desert" | Mac Carroll, Laura Díaz Rodríguez, Aya Jaffer, and Maia Lazor | Spring 2024

View Work

Questions?

Please contact Jeanne Monahan through the Virtual Advising Center with any questions about the Community-Engaged Honors Program.

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