IHE and Valparaiso University partner to offer unique graduate
programs for educators and people inspired to create a better world.
SURRY, MAINE – April 6, 2011, People who are passionate about helping to create a just, healthy world can now earn a graduate degree to do so, starting this fall. The Institute for Humane Education (IHE), in partnership with the accredited Valparaiso University, is launching new graduate degree and certificate programs in comprehensive humane education. Zoe Weil, president and co-founder of the IHE, said, “These programs – the only ones of their kind – provide the knowledge and tools people need to bring pressing global challenges to students and the public in ways that promote positive solutions for a better world.”
The programs include a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Humane Education; a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Humane Education; an M.Ed. in Instructional Leadership, with a Concentration in Humane Education; an M.A. in Liberal Studies, with a Concentration in Humane Education; and a credit-bearing Graduate Certificate in Humane Education (which can be either stand-alone or added to an existing degree). IHE’s graduate programs provide in-depth training in comprehensive humane education, helping educators, activists and others gain the skills and strategies to teach others about the interconnected issues of human rights, environmental preservation, animal protection, and media, culture & consumerism, and to empower them to become solutionaries for a better world.
Sarah Speare, IHE’s Executive Director, said, “IHE’s five new graduate programs offer the most comprehensive and highest level programs in humane education today. The online classroom format allows people to enroll from all over the world and the different offerings allow students to modify their studies to fit their own unique situations. The programs offer a rewarding and transformative experience that enable students to pursue their goals to educate for a better world wherever they live. ”
David Rowland, Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School at Valparaiso University, noted, “this dynamic partnership between Valpo and IHE brings together the best of higher education and the non-profit world as together they serve the practical and professional needs of teachers and other leaders in the development of people, organizations, and communities. These interdisciplinary programs offer intellectual rigor, relevance to contemporary and developing global issues, and a virtual community of learners that spans the US and reaches around the world–this is truly learning at its best!”
Each program begins with a foundation of core courses, focused on an Introduction to Humane Education; Environmental Ethics; Animal Protection; Human Rights; and Culture and Change. Students and graduates of IHE’s programs have incorporated humane education into a variety of careers, such as classroom and non-traditional teaching, writing, filmmaking and other arts, entrepreneurship in social businesses, non-profit work, law, healthcare, and social work.
The Institute for Humane Education (IHE) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) educational organization dedicated to creating a world of solutionaries who have the knowledge, tools, and motivation to work toward a healthy, humane, restorative world for all. Headquartered in Surry, Maine, IHE has been training humane educators and promoting humane education since 1996. Humane education approaches human rights, environmental preservation and animal protection as interconnected and integral dimensions of a healthy, just society. In addition to its graduate programs, IHE offers online courses, workshops, a Summer Institute for educators, as well as many free, dynamic resources available at: www.HumaneEducation.org.
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