MA in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities

Welcome from Program Director Ann Driscoll

The MA in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities is a 48 credit graduate program. Students can choose between the two year Master of Arts program or the one year 24 credit Certificate of Graduate Study.

The MA in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program views the concerns of social responsibility, sustainability, and social justice as inextricably linked.  Communities around the world continue to become increasingly interconnected around issues of human rights, the distribution of wealth, climate change, and ethical leadership. The allocation of resources, the drive of the world’s people for self-determination, and the long-term vitality of the planet require new and innovative solutions to these social, political, economic and environmental issues.

WATCH Ann talk about the program.

LISTEN to Ann interviewed on Will Boyd's storiesfromgoddard.com podcast show.

Studies within the program support students in their aspiration to be effective agents of positive social change as entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders, managers, community organizers, environmental stewards, and social justice advocates. Students in the program acquire skills needed to create and lead just, sustainable, and socially responsible organizations and communities. 

Work of the Program

Students in the low residency Masters in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program share a desire to make a difference by helping to create more just, humane, democratic, and sustainable organizations and communities. Studies within the program are self-designed and unique to each student. Students in the low residency MA in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program develop and carry out an individualized plan of study built around their chosen area of focus and an in-depth topic of inquiry. During on-site residencies, students work in close partnership with their faculty advisor to design the work of the semester. This approach to student-centered study assures that each student’s academic work is deeply engaging and meaningful to their lives and learning objectives.

Working and learning in their own communities, students exchange five written packets over the course of the semester with their faculty advisor. Through the exchange of packets and responses, students maintain a close connection with their advisor, document their learning, and receive constructive feedback and encouragement. In general, packets reflect the combination of academic work (critical reading, thinking and writing), process of personal discovery, and application of learning in real life settings that are the heart of emancipatory progressive education.

The Faculty

Faculty in the low residency MA in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program work closely with students throughout their studies. Program faculty are actively engaged in their fields, supporting students through an in-depth theoretical understanding of their areas of inquiry united with practical experience in diverse real world applications.

The experience of the low residency MA in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program faculty includes work as entrepreneurs, consultants, teachers, trainers, facilitators, advisors, businesses owners, program managers, researchers, analysts, writers, community organizers, environmental stewards, social change activists and policy developers.

In addition to offering richly varied personal and professional backgrounds and a passionate interest in their subject areas, the faculty provide one-on-one mentoring that is engaging, affirming, constructively challenging, and meaningful for students.

The Residency

Each semester in the low residency Masters in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program begins with an eight-day residency on the Goddard campus in Central Vermont. During the residency, students and program faculty come together as a culturally diverse and progressively oriented community of learners. Students meet one-on-one and in small advising groups with their faculty advisor, plan the work of the semester, network with other students, attend skill-building workshops and program-related seminars presented by faculty, guest speakers, and returning students, and participate in site visits to experience first-hand a wide array of local Vermont organizational and community-based approaches to social responsibility and sustainability.

Topics of recent seminars and site visits have included starting up socially responsible businesses, creating self-sufficient revenue streams for not-for-profits, using alterative currencies to create prosperous local economies, understanding the ecovillage as a model of sustainable community, approaches to civic engagement and economic development in international settings, the significance of place in a bioregional identity, and organizational models that support economic and social justice.