Urban Studies - URBN.AA

The Urban Studies Option of the Liberal Arts/General Studies Program is offered for students who seek both an understanding of the ways in which historical, cultural, and socio-economic forces have influenced the landscape of the modern city, as well as the skills to help create change in urban environments.  Students finishing this program will demonstrate sensitivity toward the diversity of culture found in urban environments.  Students will hone problem solving skills to address modern urban policy issues that focus around socio-economic hardships and public health disparities, and will apply those skills to challenges faced in the local urban environment.  A variety of courses, from areas such as Architecture and Building Technology, Public Health, Sociology, History, Economics, and Literature, comprise the interdisciplinary curriculum.

The culminating project for a student in the Urban Studies and Sustainable Environment Program will be the Analysis of Urban Systems Capstone course.  In this course, students will engage in a civic learning project, applying problem solving skills they have learned to an actual challenge faced by the city of Springfield, MA.  The students will develop a proposed solution to the challenge, and present it to the local community.  

This curriculum meets the requirements for the MassTransfer A2B Pathway in Sociology.  (For more information about MassTransfer benefits, please visit www.stcc.edu/transfer.)

Upon successful completion of requirements for this program, the degree of Associate in Arts in Liberal Arts/General Studies will be awarded.