FDDS Certificate in Social Responsibility: The FDDS Certificate in Social Responsibility is a 14-credit, cohort-based four-year certificate program. Frederick Douglass Distinguished Scholars are required to complete the certificate within four years. Through the lens of multidisciplinary approaches to moral leadership, the certificate is designed to create socially-responsible leaders who are critical thinkers and engaged activists in the tradition of the American abolitionist and social reformer Frederick Douglass.

Course Requirements

1. Master Class (4 credit hours): A signature experience for FDDS, Scholars meet twice monthly with the program's faculty director and work to develop key skills and competencies that will elevate their strengths, cultivate leadership capacity, and enhance academic skills. Each semester, the class centers upon a theme that is explored via discussion, reading, film, visiting speakers, and scholar presentations. Masterclass is complemented by co-curricular activities led by one of the program's Faculty Fellows.
2. Moral Leadership (3 credit hours)
3. Engaged Activists (3 credit hours)
4. Institutional Structures and Social Responsibility (3 credit hours)
5. Research Module (1 credit hour, must be taken Spring of First Year)