Ph.D. Program now offers four Certificates

Union Institute & University now offers doctoral certificates in:

• Creative Writing
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Studies & Social Change
• Women’s & Gender Studies
• Design Thinking

These certificates are embedded within the Ph.D. program, so you are able to graduate with both the doctoral degree and a single certificate. This provides substantial documentation for your future professional leadership endeavors. These certificates are available only to degree seeking students and are awarded in tandem with the completion of a doctoral degree. For more information contact admissions.phd@myunion.edu or 888-828-8575.

Creative Writing
12 credits / 4 seminars
The Creative Writing Certificate is comprised of two workshop-style creative writing seminars and two advanced content seminars. Given the increased attentiveness to creative writing in fields such as education, leadership studies, sociology, psychology, and medicine, many students find this formal recognition of their scholarly-creative work to be a valuable credential in both academic and non-academic job markets.

Highlights:
■ Adds interdisciplinary breadth to your course of study.
■ Delves deeply and fully into your creative writing and the creative writing of others.
■ Strengthens your ability to read and critique a wide variety of texts with the eye of a writer and editor.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Studies & Social Change
12 credits / 3 seminars and 1 internship
The four seminars for this certificate are devoted to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s writings, the relationship between ideas and practices, and how his philosophy extends to current challenges of social justice in the real world. This certificate is likely to improve opportunities for those pursuing fields such as: education, human services, leadership and policy planning.

Highlights:
■ Distinguishes understanding and application of approaches to actualizing social change.
■ Provides a greater opportunity for employment in community development organizations and agencies focused on conflict
resolution.
■ Increases teaching opportunities in interdisciplinary studies programs.

Women’s & Gender Studies
12 credits / 4 courses
The certificate in Women’s & Gender Studies is comprised of four courses with activities during the academic residencies that include Women & Power Luncheons and special faculty presentations of Women’s & Gender Studies issues.

Highlights:
■ Prepares you for teaching in Women’s Studies Departments, Gender Studies Departments, and Interdisciplinary Programs.
■ Increases opportunities in the corporate environment where the Women’s & Gender Studies Certificate will demonstrate competence in dealing with issues related to gender equality.
■ Provides opportunities in the social services arenas working with populations including women, girls, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) communities and more.

Design Thinking 
12 credits / 4 seminars
The Design Thinking Certificate focuses on combining creative solutions through analytic approaches and requires
collaboration across disciplines. This program challenges you to develop new problem solving techniques to specific challenges.
The process draws from a variety of fields and combines them with ideas from the arts, social sciences, and business.

Highlights:
■ Allows multi-modal pedagogies leading to the creation of new knowledge that uses a diversity of skill for showcasing cutting edge collaborative work.
■ Takes pedagogies outside the realm of the traditional box.
■ Provides creative and critical thinking processes applicable to the fields of education and business in a global economy.