Community at Cornell
A required program for new Cornellians to engage with fellow incoming students and practice skills for meaningful and collaborative communication.
Undergraduate Student
Courses & Offerings
EDUC 2610/ILRID 2610: Intergroup Dialogue
In this 3-credit course, you will learn to connect and communicate about and across differences of perspective, experience, and identity, and explore your agency to advance the social good. Through faculty lectures, engaged assignments, and conversations led by trained undergraduate facilitators, you will learn frameworks and practice skills in the areas of human connection, dimensions of difference, intentional communication, and collaborative change.
EDUC 4826/ILRID 4826: Leading Dialogue Across Difference
A 4-credit course that students take while co-facilitating one section of EDUC 2610/ILRID 2610 (Intergroup Dialogue). Through theoretical and experiential learning, students in EDUC 4826/ILRID 4826 will further develop knowledge and skills gained in EDUC 2610 for leadership and facilitation across social, cultural, and political differences.
HE 2222: Translating the Science of Purpose
A 3-credit spring course that provides students with an introduction to the science of purpose with the goal of being able to share this knowledge and co-create new knowledge with communities that might benefit from it. Students will be supported in developing skills for communicating about research with groups and individuals that might apply relevant findings in their own lives, organizations, and/or communities.
PUBPOL/HE 2700: Pathways to Purpose – Civic Leadership in Law, Health, Tech, and Business
What does it mean to lead with purpose—and how can your Cornell education help you do it?
This 1 weekend, 1-credit course invites you to explore big questions about leadership, democracy, and impact while connecting with peers, faculty experts, and alumni who are turning their values into action. With flexible online preparation followed by an immersive weekend summit, you can earn 1 credit in just one weekend while building skills that last far beyond it.
PUBPOL 2880/5881: Dialogue Across Differences for Public Policy
A 3-credit spring course that equips students with dialogue skills to analyze and address complex policy issues, fostering communication across differences and exploring diverse perspectives on policymaking, while emphasizing experiential learning and engagement with both peers and community practitioners.
UNILWYL 1515: Dialogue Across Political Differences
A 1-credit, 7-week 2 course for students to have genuine conversations about and across political differences. Throughout the course, participants will gain skills for communicating effectively across differences, reflect on the impact of engaging with others whose political perspectives are different from our own, and work collaboratively to foster a “brave space” where curiosity and a willingness to understand are promoted.
Past Offerings
ILRID 2250: Writing Seminar in ILR – Imagining Workplace Inclusion
A 3-credit fall course that examines how imaginative works like novels, plays, and television shows, along with academic scholarship, can expand our understanding of workplace inclusion and power, while developing skills in critical analysis and academic writing through substantial revision.
ILRID 2650: Inclusive Leadership
A 7-week 2, 2-credit course that seeks to galvanize leadership education by putting traditional leadership scholarship in conversation with the writings of activists and humanistic scholars. Through this juxtaposition, we will explore and examine our preconceived notions of “leadership,” “diversity,” and “inclusion.”
Transitions & Connections: Summer Program for New Students
Transitions & Connections is a summer program that pairs small groups of new students with an upperclassman facilitator to make connections, build community, and ask questions about what it’s really like to live and learn at Cornell before classes start.
UNILWYL 1115: Exploring Purpose in Life – Identity, meaning, and direction at Cornell
A 1-credit, 7-week 2 course aiming to provide first-year students with the opportunity to reflect on purpose in life and how being at Cornell might impact their own experiences with identity, meaning, and direction. Participating students will be supported in developing and using critical dialogue skills to understand their experience with purpose in life and how social identities (e.g., nationality, race, socioeconomic status) relate to their exploration of and/or commitment to purpose.