Advanced Studies Program
In order for community members to develop new institutional systems and patterns of community life, a vast expanse of knowledge is needed at the grassroots. The kind of knowledge that is required will need to be integrated from various disciplines in order to effectively develop the diverse patterns of social and economic activity that we hope will characterize the future of our neighborhoods. As community members acquire and integrate knowledge from numerous fields of endeavor into their efforts to enhance collective life, they will need to carefully reflect upon the ideas encountered in a given discourse in order to coherently integrate knowledge and insights that are conducive to progress, to refine and reject those that are not, and to avoid fragmentation. Additionally, we must strive to read the reality of a given body of knowledge in a manner that is consistent with an evolving conceptual framework informed by both science and religion. In light of these principles, the Center for Studies in Community Progress is facilitating spaces that enable an increasing number of community members to explore literature from various fields, organize these insights, and discuss how insights might be applied to long and short term learning processes of collective action.
The Advanced Studies Program is one series of spaces in which community members living in neighborhoods where intensive activity is already underway are coming together three times per year to collectively explore certain fields of human knowledge. These fields are of interest to participants personally, while at the same time, they shed light on questions relevant to the academic and social lives of others in their neighborhoods. Participants choose broad areas within a given discipline, for example, education policy in the United States, civic engagement, public health, the advancement of women, urban agriculture, and alternative approaches to economic activity and are assisted to select a set of prominent books within these areas. Additionally, participants accompany one another to discern questions that can be explored through the study and analysis of these readings alongside their ongoing service to their communities and the courses they are taking in school. One aim in particular is to assist young people to achieve coherence between their education, their vision for their careers, and the ongoing conversations rapidly unfolding about the progress of their neighborhoods. It also provides space for young people to analyze the underlying assumptions and narratives presented in prominent literature in order to ensure we are not unconsciously adopting ideas that are ideologically at variance with immutable spiritual convictions. In this way, it is hoped young people will be empowered to take ownership of their intellectual life and enhance the capacities needed to become lifelong learners in both formal and informal settings.
The Center is striving to cultivate environments where true understanding can blossom and the tentative venturer can experience the joy of expanding their intellectual horizons. Many individuals describe that environments in secondary and tertiary educational settings have felt intimidating, competitive, or frustrating. It is hoped that the spaces created to collectively advance our intellectual life can be characterized instead by mutual support, sincere curiosity, and sustained encouragement. We are striving to create a particular culture characterized by both humility and encouragement as well as rigor and excellence. Each participant is a co-creator in the construction of such spiritually empowering environments that can characterize our collective search for truth both through refinement of inner conditions and through disciplined contributions to consultative spaces.
Over time, the knowledge generated by the participants in the seminars can assist the Center for Studies in Community Progress to clarify and elaborate concepts that underpin elements of our conceptual framework that guide processes of action-research unfolding in our neighborhoods. Additionally, by being a part of such an expanding network, we are developing a community with interdisciplinary knowledge, even while individual participants become particularly well versed in a specific field or research area. All participants are viewed as protagonists in a systematic effort to contribute to the institutional knowledge facilitated by the research center. Therefore, the relationship between the institution and the communities in which it is embedded is one of gratitude and reciprocity.