F&M Certificates

Disciplines: Biology, Psychology, Anthropology, Classics, Earth & Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, French, German

This certificate develops your abilities to care for animals professionally as well as your capacity to reflect on your experiences as an element of humans’ relationships with the natural world. You will learn fundamentals of behavior and conditioning in the classroom, engage in hands-on animal care and primate training, and understand how to view your work in a broader ethical, cultural, and social context. You will demonstrate your expertise by creating specific enrichment and training plans.

Disciplines: Sociology, Anthropology, Film, Music, Theatre, Dance

This certificate will help you deepen your understanding of the arts as media for impacting culture, community, politics, education, and more. Arts for Social Change spans F&M’s dynamic arts disciplines, uniting the ethos of community-building with artistic practice that foregrounds innovation and action.

Disciplines: Philosophy, Sociology, and internship for credit in Lancaster schools

Pairing philosophy and sociology, this certificate builds a multifaceted foundation in the study of education. You will philosophically investigate important civic issues while using a sociological lens to analyze the structure and dynamics of educational systems. Hands-on experiences are an important aspect of this certificate. Through a for-credit internship, you will work with students in Lancaster County schools, experiencing firsthand the lived effects of socially patterned inequalities while exploring educational principles regarding learning and equality.

According to the UNHCR  (the UN Refugee Agency), more than 120 million people around the world are currently experiencing forced displacement. The reasons that drive forced migration are ever expanding, from war and famine, to public health concerns and climate change. Migration is one of the most sensitive global political issues of our time, and migration policies make or break governments. This certificate draws on courses from the social sciences, the arts, the humanities, and the natural sciences to offer a multi-faceted exploration of global issues connected to transnational migration. The courses in the certificate are paired with a strong experiential learning component, developed in collaboration with Lancaster-based migrant-services organizations.

Disciplines: Science, Technology and Society; History; English; Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Philosophy

Health humanities is a growing field at the intersection of humanistic scholarship and health professions. This certificate blends rich perspectives from several academic fields to explore questions of health (including mental health and public health), illness, medicine, and disability. You’ll study broader questions of health from three key perspectives: historical, ethical, and literary/cultural.

Disciplines: Linguistics, Philosophy

Combining linguistics and philosophy, you will explore foundational questions about linguistic structure, meaning, and communication. You will investigate the cognitive dimensions of language, the social-political dimensions of language, and how the study of language connects to philosophical questions concerning the nature of truth, logic and knowledge.

Disciplines: Government; Business, Organizations and Society; American Studies; Economics; English; and Philosophy

This certificate enables you to engage and evaluate legal discourse and argument. You will build a foundational understanding of the legal field through a blend of government; business, organizations and society; American studies; economics; English; and philosophy. Drawing upon exploration of legal doctrines, reasoning, and policies in both public and private law, you will critically examine legal controversies from literary, economic, philosophic, and cultural perspectives. In addition to your coursework, you will gain hands-on experience with a legal internship or by participating in F&M’s Mock Trial Program.

Disciplines: Entrepreneurship, Earth & Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Sociology

Are you interested in having a positive impact on the world around you? Social entrepreneurship leverages best practices in innovation, social change, and startups to address the social issues that matter most to you. Through this certificate, you will learn how to become aware, recognize, and think critically about societal problems and needs in the world around you; develop your entrepreneurial mindset and techniques to create solutions that are sustainable over time; and apply what you learn in a hands-on project.

Disciplines: Sociology; Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Africana Studies; American Studies

This certificate synthesizes critical perspectives on the social systems and structures through which dynamics of power and inequality are created, maintained, contested, and transformed. At the intersections of race, gender, socioeconomic class, and sexuality, you will have the opportunity to meaningfully engage with historical and contemporary issues germane to struggles for equity and justice between and across social identity groups.

Disciplines: Earth & Environmental Science, Economics, Environmental Studies, and Business, Organizations and Society

Sustainability planning is an increasing need in the marketplace. This certificate provides the glue that connects earth and environment with business, organizations and society to prepare students interested in careers in sustainable practices. The courses in this certificate provide opportunities for you to acquire skills in on-the-ground communication; policy analysis; research methods; risk assessment; sustainability metrics, tracking, and reporting; sustainability philosophies and techniques; and more. Applying what you’ve learned in the field, you’ll also be encouraged to pursue hands-on experiences through internships or independent research projects.