Courses Tailored Toward Leadership and Innovation
The Wilson Center sponsors courses that complement the existing curriculum of majors and concentrations, as well as provides course offerings in areas of student demand consistent with our mission but with no departmental home.
Wilson gives special attention to connecting our students with professionals, particularly alumni, who serve as leaders and innovators in their fields and can offer inspiration, mentorship, and valuable lessons. Our courses also feature opportunities for discovery-mode, practice-based or experiential learning.
Each year, Wilson offers a core repertoire of courses, including our highly popular Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni. Wilson also sponsors a number of short courses with diverse and varying foci, often taught by our accomplished alumni. Lastly, Wilson sponsors enhancements to existing courses to add opportunities for leadership and innovation to the existing curriculum.
Fall 2024
The Enterprise of Freelance Journalism (WIL-101-01)
Short course with visiting instructor. Journalism isn't dying, but the newsroom might be. Freelance journalists run their own enterprise by finding their own stories, setting their own hours, and working from wherever they want. This course covers the practicalities of freelancing, from identifying stories to building a platform on social media, as well as how to use those tools to build a more ethical, diverse and sustainable future for the profession.
Entrepreneurship and Social Change (WIL-201-01)
Short course with visiting instructor. A frequent critique of business is that prioritization of profit is a key driver of many of the world's interlocking crises. However, technology and innovation create effective solutions at speed and scale. This course will detail how entrepreneurs address the world's biggest problems in areas such as climate change, inequality, health, education, and good government. Multiple guest entrepreneurs will share their own journeys in entrepreneurial social action. Students will learn different types of business organizations including how investors support socially-minded entrepreneurs through these enterprises.
Learning from Alumni (WIL-210-01)
Taught by Henry Reitz '89. Students engage with alumni to learn about their lives and careers. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussion with alumni will help students think creatively about their 51²č¹Żapp education and possible futures. The second goal of this course is to help create a multi-generational network or community of 51²č¹Żapp alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world.
Spring 2025
Wellness for Principle-centered Leadership (WIL-101-01)
Short course with visiting instructor. To change the world, you must first change yourself. This course presents tools to assess physical, mental, social, and spiritual health and develop strategies to obtain and maintain good health and wellness for a lifetime. Students will learn to create habits that increase performance capability in order to achieve worthwhile purposes through understanding and living principle-centered leadership.
Spark Challenge (WIL-110-01)
Taught by J. Montgomery Roper. Students are provided with a framework and guidance as they research and present solutions to social problems in the community using a hybrid approach based on applied anthropology, design thinking, and policy analysis. Students may focus on issues they have identified themselves or tackle an issue identified by a 51²č¹Żapp community organization. While not required, all students are encouraged to pitch their solutions for the chance to win up to $10,000 as part of the Wilson Center's SPARK Challenge. All SPARK participants must enroll in the class for credit or as an audit.
Learning from Alumni (WIL-210-01)
Taught by Henry Reitz '89. Students engage with alumni to learn about their lives and careers. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussion with alumni will help students think creatively about their 51²č¹Żapp education and possible futures. The second goal of this course is to help create a multi-generational network or community of 51²č¹Żapp alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world.