April 18, 2002 - Penn State: Bolivia RPCV Steve Smith and Philippines RPCV Frank Higdon are faculty members in Penn State Community Development Program

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2002: 04 April 2002 Peace Corps Headlines: April 18, 2002 - Penn State: Bolivia RPCV Steve Smith and Philippines RPCV Frank Higdon are faculty members in Penn State Community Development Program

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-48-41.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.48.41) on Monday, October 06, 2003 - 3:32 pm: Edit Post

Bolivia RPCV Steve Smith and Philippines RPCV Frank Higdon are faculty members in Penn State Community Development Program



Bolivia RPCV Steve Smith and Philippines RPCV Frank Higdon are faculty members in Penn State Community Development Program

NEW ON-LINE COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM HAS RPCV CONNECTIONS

www.cedev.aers.psu.edu/

People who care about the future of towns, small cities, rural areas, and developing communities now have two new educational opportunities from The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State). A graduate Certificate and a master's degree in community and economic development are being offered with on-line opportunities for students who cannot, or choose not, to move to University Park, Pa. This is an on-line opportunity for RPCV's to improve their decision-making skills in how to empower local communities to make their own decisions and how to improve the social and economic well-being of individual citizens. Steve Smith, RPCV Bolivia, and Frank Higdon, RPCV Philippines, are faculty members in the program. Steve and Frank have been instrumental in developing the courses and teach on-line regularly.

While many universities focus attention on larger urban and metropolitan areas, this is an applied multidisciplinary program that emphasizes smaller cities, towns, and developing areas. These issues may include developing new organizations and industries, growth management, protecting the environment, revitalizing downtown areas and neighborhoods and assisting educational, social, health and human service systems. Graduates will be prepared to work for public, non-profit or private organizations that deal with development issues in America's towns, boroughs, small cities, community organizations, neighborhoods, rural areas, and a variety of localities in other countries.

The World Campus graduate Certificate in Community and Economic Development requires 13 credits, consisting of four three-credit courses and a one-credit integrative project/paper. Courses will be delivered through the Internet, e-mail, print media and CD-ROM. Five core courses are shared with the resident master's program, so learners already working in the field can begin their master's degree without leaving home or work.

The five courses (13 credits) that make up the Graduate Certificate are -- *Principles of Community and Economic Development and Leadership; *Principles of Economic Development Planning; *Rural Organization; *Population, Land Use, and Municipal Finance; and, *Thesis Research (Off-Campus). These are also the core courses for Penn State's resident master's (MS) program of the same name. That means that students and faculty may begin education towards their masters degree without leaving home or work. In addition, these programs can also provide opportunities for entry into the Ph.D. program in Agricultural Economics (AgEc) and the Ph.D. program in Rural Sociology both of which allow students to focus on community and economic development issues.

Penn State's World Campus, launched in 1997, is Penn State's on-line learning environment in which students can participate in Penn State programs any time, anywhere, using the most appropriate mix of traditional and cutting-edge instructional media. The World Campus draws together Penn State's renowned faculty, a support system that ranges from advising to on-line registration and access to resources (including the University Libraries system) into a virtual academic environment.

Those who are interested mainly in the courses and/or the Certificate and not the MS, can register through the World Campus site as a "non degree graduate" student without going through Graduate School admission procedures. CEDEV 500, the introductory graduate course, is offered during the Summer session 2002 and three courses are offered in the Fall semester. Registration is now open for the Summer session. A direct link to the World Campus certificate page is: http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/cedev/index.shtml

The master's program requires 35 credits, including an internship or field project leading to a paper or thesis. Students must complete a core program of required courses in economic development and leadership, rural organization, economic planning, statistics and research methods and land use, as well as electives tailored to their individual plan of study. For more information on the master's degree in community and economic development, contact Drew Hyman at (814) 863-8655, email dwh@psu.edu, or visit the World Wide Web at www.cedev.aers.psu.edu/.

Penn State also has an excellent Cooperative Extension program which has a web site with a number of helpful tools and techniques. For your information, the Community Affairs Extension (CAX) site is: http://cax.aers.psu.edu/

Drew Hyman, Coordinator
Community and Economic Development Programs (CEDev)
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
6 Armsby Building, University Park, PA, USA 16802
http://cedev.aers.psu.edu/
<dwh@psu.edu>



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Story Source: Penn State

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Bolivia; COS - Philippines; University Education; Community Development

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