Global Impact Year

No Back-Row Classrooms

The Verto Curriculum

There is no back-row in a Verto classroom. No boring lectures. No easy answers. All of our learning, both virtual and in-person, is active, engaging, and relevant. In collaboration with our partner, Minerva, Verto’s fall semester promotes engagement beyond traditional remote learning. You’ll immerse yourself in coursework designed to help you become a better thinker, scholar, and citizen. Our accomplished faculty aren’t just voices on a screen, they actively guide you to think critically about social, cultural, and political issues from a global perspective. You’ll be encouraged to seek your purpose and motivations, build effective study habits, and better understand the world around you.

Read more about the Fall 2020 courses below:

Considering the impact of  COVID-19 for all of us, and its outsized effect on historically marginalized communities, there may be no more relevant discipline than Public and Global Health. This poignant course examines the structures and institutions which are responsible for population health around the globe. In the course, you’ll explore the potential lived experiences and societal factors that shape our individual health narratives. With an expert instructor, you’ll dive into the cultural, political, economic, and geographic contexts of public health. You will gain comprehensive perspective on how communities all over the globe shape and define public health based on countries’ history, culture, and local policy. The class will be taught in a dynamic online seminar with topics ranging from women’s health to the ethics of research methodologies. As a class, you will build on core concepts of determinants of health through discussions and creative assignments to further our understanding of the intersection of policy, ethics, practice and health outcomes.

Asking the essential question “Does our democracy require truth?,” this course is an active exploration of the importance of credible information in American society, specifically in politics and government. As you take this course during an election year, you’ll examine your own experience as a citizen and apply your new knowledge in real time. Analyze political discourse and the circulation of online information to determine credible sources, understand how to verify information, and how to debunk falsehoods. Through case studies and readings, this course builds students’ knowledge of the functions of government, politics, civil liberties and civil rights.

Logical reasoning, problem-solving, and mitigating cognitive biases are among the most fundamental skills to reach your highest potential as a student, professional, and citizen. In this course, you’ll systematically practice these skills, learning to apply them to concrete problems across relevant domains. You will gain a foundation in critical and creative thinking upon which you can build expertise in disciplinary knowledge and excel in your chosen major.

Our Rhetoric & Research course is designed to strengthen your writing mechanics and prepare you for the demands of academic writing. This course has been designed to develop writing and rhetoric skills by leveraging, reflecting on, and processing the experience Verto students are having during their semester, whether that be virtual or in person. It connects to themes from your SOC 299 and GOVT 201 courses as well as current events and your personal histories. As a student of this course, you’ll learn the importance of strong academic writing, develop strong academic prose, and explore the relationship between language and rhetoric. This course includes faculty-led seminars, writing workshops, peer reviews, and individual tutorials between students and faculty.

The Verto Seminar is an exploratory course designed to encourage you to investigate, reflect, make informed decisions, become more self-aware and globally conscious, and feel empowered to develop future educational and life goals. In this course, you will reflect on all that you bring to this learning community, explore your role as a global citizen, gain awareness of the ins and outs of higher education, and apply this knowledge for personal growth. You will use evidence-based research as a tool for asking purposeful questions, gaining knowledge and understanding, and making reasoned decisions for the benefit of your future and that of the world in which we live.