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Empathy Certificate
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Credits:
16(3 terms)
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Degree:
Post-baccalaureate Certificate
Program Description
Too often, the study of history occurs from the perspective of looking at dates and manipulated facts. This program utilizes an empathy pedagogy that focuses on constant teacher-student interaction, attentive listening, and interchange of roles. In this context, we will apply empathy and storytelling as a means of analyzing the Underground Railroad from its historical sense. At the conclusion of this program, students will be equipped to incorporate the content from this program and Empathy techniques into their classroom and develop new educational models for social change.
An Empathy pedagogy includes understanding the students' perspectives and giving value to their experiences. When the channels of communication are open and teachers get into their students' shoes, material relevant to the students' experiences is present in the second stage, while students are encouraged to question the prevailing status quo and to raise their voices in institutional contexts in which they have traditionally been silenced. Finally, during the third stage, students disseminate self-gained knowledge and thoughts with a view to creating a better future and a different society as part of the broader mission of informed, democratic, critical, empathetic, and active citizens.
Empathy Certificate Learning Outcomes
Upon completing the Empathy graduate certificate program, students will be able to:
- Explain and analyze the Underground Railroad as a key historical event
- Understand and evaluate the diversity of the human experience as influenced by religion, race, culture, and politics in US history
- Apply historical processes that shape individuals and communities, drawing on detailed knowledge about the history of the area under study
- Think critically about the complexity of experiences found in the historical record of the United States during the Underground Railroad, and utilize Empathy to explore diversity as a critical component of history
- Distinguish between primary and secondary sources, and understand how each are used to make historical arguments
- Assess, use, and synthesize different kinds of evidence from a variety of historical sources to make a coherent argument about the past
- Effectively conduct research and write a coherent historical essay or research paper that articulates a clear argument, effectively interprets multiple forms of evidence, identifies arguments in secondary historical texts, and uses appropriate citations.
- Understand teh difference between opinions and substantiated scholarly claims
- Produce new works to be used within the classroom setting
- Utilize storytelling in a classroom setting
Careers and Further Study for Empathy Certificate
K-12 teachers, parents, administrators, community leaders and college faculty will benefit from this certificate program.
Graduates may be eligible for advancement in human service careers that do not require licensure. They will not be eligible to return to study towards mental health licensure at the CAGS level.
Curriculum
Four 3-credit classes and one 4-credit class/tour
Term 1
Reframing Our Stories: Empathy and the Underground Railroad
EMP 600 • 3 credit(s)
The impact of slavery, disenfranchisement, and systematic oppression of minorities still impacts American culture and politics. Learners in this course will gain an understanding of the Underground Railroad freedom movement and apply the pedagogies of empathy to navigate through the emotional complexities of race, politics, culture, and engagement.
Underground Railroad: From Bondage to Abolition
EMP 601 • 3 credit(s)
This course analyzes the creation of African-American culture in North America, the establishment of race-based slavery throughout the North American/Colonies, the realities of slave life, African-American resistance to slavery and the experience of free blacks in both the North and South.
Term 2
Unraveling Our History: Grappling with Race and Culture in America
EMP 602 • 3 credit(s)
From chattel slavery to Black Lives Matter, political and cultural ruptures in American history necessarily deal with difference and dissonance. Students in this course will analyze and examine how racism and the immigrant experience led to oppression in the United States.
From Oppression to Social Change
EMP 603 • 3 credit(s)
Wherever there are groups oppressing others, there are leaders who resist and work for change. Students in this course will examine social identity development, privilege, power and activism. Through the use of storytelling exercises, we will identify and examine social justice in our personal and professional lives, and envision how we can practice education in a way that values and affirms each person’s experiences and creates an environment of change.
Term 3
Footsteps to Freedom
EMP 604 • 4 credit(s)
In the culminating summer course, tour participants learn firsthand about the incredible courage of the people who sought freedom or who helped others achieve it along the route of the Underground Railroad. Students will learn firsthand the steps that enslaved Americans traveled to gain their freedom and experience actual locations along the route to better understand what enslaved Africans underwent for freedom in this country.
Admissions
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Admission Test:
No standardized graduate school tests required for admission into non-licensure programs
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Admissions Office:
1-800-829-4723
- Application Form:
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Application Fee:
$50 ($100 for international students)
Program Requirements
Bachelor's degree and other School of Education requirements
Health Requirements for Massachusetts Students
The Massachusetts Health Department and Cambridge College require the following of students in Massachusetts:
Immunizations – All students in Massachusetts are required to get certain immunizations before you can register for your first term. See form
Health Insurance – In Massachusetts, undergraduate students taking nine or more credits/term and graduate students taking six or more credits/term must enroll in the College’s health insurance plan. Students who have insurance with comparable coverage may request a waiver. See information and enroll or waive.
School Requirements
International Students
International students need to provide supplemental documentation:
- Official demonstration of English language proficiency
- Supplemental documentation for issuance of I-20
- International transcripts, evaluated by an accepted evaluation service
Transfer Credit
Please complete the transfer credit request form if you wish to have prior course work evaluated for transfer. Learn more about transferring credits.
Tuition
Total credits: 16
Credits at standard tuition: 12
Standard cost per credit hour: $598
Credits for Footsteps to Freedom Underground Railroad Field Study (for Summer Tour participants) at discounted tuition: 4
Discounted cost per credit hour: $187.50
Application fee: $50
Note: Rates are as of July, 2022, and are subject to change without notice. Rates apply to all students, unless otherwise noted.
Financial Aid
Cambridge College offers financial aid to students in our degree programs who are enrolled at least half time. Undergraduate students must be enrolled in at least 6 credits each term. Graduate and doctoral students must be enrolled in at least 4 credits each term. Learn more
Grants, Scholarships and Loans
Cambridge College welcomes the opportunity to support your efforts to pay for college. Federal, state and local resources in the form of grants, scholarships, loans and work-study, including Cambridge College Scholarships, are available to help defray the cost of tuition. Learn more
Getting Your Company to Help
Many companies have tuition assistance programs, designed to help their employees with their professional development. Learn more
Take the next step toward your Empathy Certificate
Take the next step toward your Empathy Certificate
