Martín-Baró Scholars Program

Administrative Office

University Center, Room 568

Phone: (415) 422-5541

Email: ranck@usfca.edu

Lorrie Ranck, M.Ed., Director of Living/Learning Communities

The Martín-Baró Scholars Program is a two-semester long, community-based living-learning program at the University of San Francisco. The program integrates core requirements and elective units into a single, comprehensive curriculum that examines issues of citizenship, social justice, and diversity. Utilizing the City of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area, students develop their abilities in observation, discussion, analysis, and writing through the multidimensional lens of the social sciences. Students will be proactive in improving the societal problems they examine throughout the year. While the Program satisfies some core requirements for freshman students, the educational goals reach far beyond attaining the minimum standards; the Program is designed to facilitate the creation of a learning community which learns not only from within, but also extends that learning into the larger world.

Selected students live in a designated area of the residence hall and attend class together. They meet and learn from people at USF and in the San Francisco community through active participation in field trips, service-learning experiences, volunteering, and a variety of learning opportunities both in and out of class. Supported by their peers, by student mentors, and by the Martín Baró staff and faculty, scholars have the benefit of developing a community early in their college career.

Students enrolled in the Martín-Baró Scholars program earn 8 units each semester during their first year at USF.

Additionally, the Martín-Baró Scholars Program is designated as a McCarthy Center course. All credits earned in the Martín-Baró Program count towards graduation and students are formally recognized at the completion of both semesters.