Certificate in Social Innovation

Our students become well prepared to work to improve the lives of society’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged people and go on to work in a wide array of fields.

The certificate program in social innovation prepares students to work in fields that seek to improve the lives of society's most vulnerable and disadvantaged people. Students gain a substantive understanding of societal issues, a broad set of skills to implement solutions for the issues, and tools to critically evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of solutions.

  • Learn methodology to solve today’s most complex and pressing societal problems
  • Understand not just how to come up with solutions but how to implement them
  • Complement your undergraduate studies with a certificate

Develop connections while exploring numerous opportunities to be mentored by successful social innovators from Boulder and elsewhere

Gain hands-on experience developing plans for new social enterprises or implementing solutions within existing organizations

Put your education into practice for societal problems identified through your studies, or by mentors and other experts

Be successful.

This certificate allows you enter the workforce with an understanding of how to help promote the common good by solving some of society’s most pressing problems.

 
$67,100

Median annual salary of community and service managers

(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019)

 

Policymaker, civil servant, social enterprise manager, community organizer, health and environmental scientist, and frontline helping professional are common opportunities to apply this certificate

 

Broaden your employment possibilities in combination with the skills you learn in your major area of study

Academic Plan & Requirements

Degree-seeking and non-degree-seeking students may obtain the certificate in social innovation. To earn the certificate, students must complete a minimum of 18 credit hours.

Course topics include:

  • Designing Social Innovations
  • Executing Social Innovations
  • Care, Health and Resilience 
  • Economy
  • Environment and Population
  • Government
  • International Affairs
  • Society 
  • Technology

Community & Involvement

We offer students many opportunities to network with peers and faculty, further their studies, and get the most out of their experience.  

Be inspired.

The Department of Sociology has an extensive alumni network in a variety of fields across the globe.

Some alumni of the program include:

Alice Fothergill

(PhD'01)
Associate professor of sociology, University of Vermont

Melissa D. Kanack

(BA'11)
A plastic surgeon practicing in La Jolla, California

Boroka Bo

(BA'12)
PhD candidate in sociology/demography at the University of California, Berkeley, recipient of a Soros fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellowship