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Martín-Baró Scholars Program |  |
University of San Francisco - San Francisco, CA - Mission, Admissions
Description:
The Martín-Baró Scholars Community 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.
The program works in collaboration with the Department of Biology, the Department of Chemistry, the Department of Physics, the Department of Nursing, Student Support Services, Academic Advising, the Learning Assistance Center, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
While the Community satisfies some core requirements for freshman students, the educational goals reach far beyond attaining the minimum standards; the Community 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.
Program History:
This community was founded out of a challenged posed by the President of the University of San Francisco (USF) , Stephen Privett, S.J. who dared the faculty and administration to dream about how USF could become a more diverse university more in line with it's mission.
The Martí n-Baró Community was founded with a generous gift from the James Irvine Foundation during it's Campus Diversity Initiative and has quickly become a strong model of an effective living learning community of the USF campus. Named in honor of Ignacio Martí n-Baró , S.J., a Jesuit martyr killed in El Salvador in 1988 the Community reflects the beliefs he held throughout his professional life for the need to transform education to reflect the society in which we live.
Seeking to educate the whole person within a culture of service while respecting and promoting the dignity of all, the Martín-Baró Community engages and challenges students to take part as leaders in the world around them.
Program Goals:
1.) Utilize the diversity of faculty and student community.
2.) Facilitate social justice & cultural learning opportunities threaded throughout community experience.
3.) Support cooperation, collaboration, and competition as elements of academic environment, which extend beyond classroom borders.
4.) Create meaningful and connected service experiences.
5.) Provide learning experiences, in and out of a traditional classroom setting, investing in and adding value to the individual learner and the community as a whole.
Program Layout:
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.
The themes that guide the Community change based in the needs of community participants and global context which make this experience unique for every class of students that participate. Supported by their peers, 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 towards core requirements each semester during their first year at USF. The course area includes: Writing & Public Speaking, Literature, Service Learning and Cultural Diversity. 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.
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