EHS Signature Courses

The EHS Signature Courses make it possible for you to "Do GOOD Work" in the local community as part of your coursework. Throughout these courses, you'll cultivate the ability to see multiple perspectives, examine your assumptions of others, make connections between the classroom and field experiences and apply what you've learned to new, complex situations. 

Student Experience

The EHS Signature Courses are integrated throughout your time at Champlain, as a part of a four-year, innovative capstone experience. Starting on day one, you'll be focused on integrated thinking and learning in EHS 100 as you are welcomed as a member of our community. When you take EHS 200 and/or EHS 210, you explore the real-world topics of social justice ethics. 

Year One: Making Connections

First, you'll take EHS 100: Making Connections, a one credit, pass/fail service course for passionate students, focused on integrating classroom concepts into service efforts. Our small, seminar-style classes allow you to interact with students from different majors within the Division of Education & Human Studies, encouraging you to meet your peers and learn from their perspectives.

Previous projects included a Fair Trade Cocoa Campaign on Burlington's Church Street  Marketplace, in which students collaborated with the Peace and Justice Center in  Burlington to raise awareness about Fair Trade policies, politics and human exploitation in developing nations where Fair Trade policies are not observed.

Years Two & Three: Hot topics and Social Justice Intensive

Based on major, you'll either take EHS 200: Hot Topics Seminar or EHS 210: Social Justice Intensive during your sophomore and junior years. These are six-week courses that thoughtfully examine controversial topics that impact all EHS professionals. 

• EHS 200: Hot Topics Seminar-You'll view films, listen to speakers, and discuss topics from multiple perspectives in this seminar class. Professional ethics, something every EHS graduate needs, will be an essential element of this class. A recent Hot Topics Seminar, Gender and Justice, explored modern issues of gender. A panel of local activists and advocates fielded questions related to gender equity as a social justice issue and described how their professional work supports gender-equity efforts.
  
  
• EHS 210: Social Justice Intensive- Spend six weeks delving into the relevance of social justice within your future career as well as how it relates to practitioner responsibility. The class also includes a practical, social-justice themed project that explores the meaning of social justice within your future profession. In this seminar, you'll participate in a meaningful, real-world experience based on a social justice theme and examine that experience from the multiple professional perspectives in the class.

Year Four: College Capstone

EHS 410: The College Capstone is the final course, taken during your senior year, which provides an EHS Career Launching experience for students. Your Capstone class includes completing a substantive profession-based, hands-on project in which you articulate critical questions and possible solutions to a challenge that professionals in your field face. The Capstone, as a whole, is a highly personalized opportunity for you to celebrate your cumulative contributions of your time at Champlain and it serves as a career-launching experience.