Program Features & Curriculum

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One aim of the Bridge Program is to remove some of the barriers that commonly prevent low-income adults from accessing higher education. As part of this, the program offers each student:

  • A supportive community
  • Tutors on site to assist with reading and writing assignments
  • Textbooks and school supplies
  • Access to computers
  • Refreshments on the nights of class
  • Bus tokens to get to and from class

Throughout the three academic quarters of the program, students study philosophy, literature, art history writing, and urban studies. Each quarter, students are enrolled in two 2-unit classes, with the option to add a 1-unit course in urban studies. In the philosophy class, students study various philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Sartre, de Beauvior, Kant, Anzaldua, Frankl, and Malcolm X. Together, the class considers the core questions of philosophy and considers both traditional answers as well as significant challenges to these answers from those whose voices have traditionally been excluded from the conversation.

Students undertake similar kinds of study in the field of literature and in the study of art history as a means of developing the ability to “read” the visual world. In the writing courses, students begin by claiming their voices and sharing their stories on the page. As the program moves forward, students begin to weave together the texts of others with their own experiences and with outside learning to create a final project that adds their voice to the conversation of the humanities. Courses offered through the field study option in Bridge are designed to encourage students to consider the ways that they might think about spaces and communities, as well as the roles and responsibilities inherent in community engagement.

Below is a description of each course offered in the Bridge Program:
ENG 110: The Art of the Personal Narrative
ENG 111: Writing & Responding: Creating a Critical Dialogue
ENG 112: Writing Critical Analysis
HUM 110: Philosophy: Good Questions for Life
HUM 111: Literature: Reading Cultures
HUM 112: Art History: Visual Literacy
URB 110: Introduction to Community Mapping Process
URB 111: Applying Community Engagement Skills
URB 112: Linking Community-Building and Service Learning

Read more about applying to the Bridge Program.

 

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