Nursing

The nursing internship and professional seminar is supervised by the Chicago Semester Director of Nursing in cooperation with Hope College and a contracted healthcare agency. Designed to deepen your socialization into professional nursing, it focuses on issues and services related to healthcare in an urban context as well as leadership and management roles that enhance your transition from student to professional RN. You will complete an internship selected from a wide range of quality clinical specialties to synthesize the concepts and philosophies of nursing from previous college courses and to develop the competencies and skills necessary for the beginning roles of the professional nurse. The weekly professional seminar focuses on NCLEX review and discussions of the professional nurse, social justice and healthcare, Christian worldview, diversity and vocation.

This course investigates urban cultural life as reflected in the arts of Chicago. We will attend plays, concerts, movies, and visit art galleries. We will process these experiences through readings, lectures and classroom discussion as we explore how Christians engage culture.

This course introduces the culture, history, assets and challenges of Chicago neighborhoods. We will examine our own social and cultural locations, and compare and contrast how our stories are similar to or different from the Chicago racial and ethnic landscape.

This course will introduce students to major streams of social justice thought, including the history of the criminal justice field and contemporary movements for social justice. We will examine the role of race, poverty and inequality in people’s experiences of the criminal justice system in the U.S. As a class we will discuss how marginalization, segregation and the lack of access to social resources influences people’s experiences of justice. We will also explore two major issues related to justice: mass incarceration and mass eviction. Finally, through conversations and visits with practitioners, advocates and organizers we will look at models of restorative justice and how communities address issues related to injustice.

This course explores the concept of vocation from a variety of perspectives. Drawing on readings from religion, theology and sociology, we will examine the ways in which we discern our calling in light of our responsibility to engage the common good. We will also look at social structures that impact work and family life (gender, race, religion and class) and how they might shape our understanding of vocation.