Fall 2024 Courses

Poverty in Waco

PPS 1100-02, 1 hour, Wednesdays, 12:20-1:10pm

Instructor: Josh Caballero, Community Engagement Officer, City of Waco

This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the causes and consequences of poverty in Waco and determine ways students can become more civically engaged. Students will learn from a variety of experts and Waco specific studies about the impact of poverty and its intersection with the sectors of employment, education, health, and community development. Students will also get a firsthand glimpse into the challenges facing those experiencing poverty in Waco through 30 hours of volunteer service over the course of the semester. By the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of poverty and ways they can work towards solutions in their field.

Christian Community Development

PPS 1100-03, 1 hour, Tuesday, 2:00-2:50pm

Instructor: Jimmy Dorrell, Co-Founder and President Emeritus of Mission Waco

Learn how to move past quick-fix projects to a community development model of helping the poor and marginalized in lower-income neighborhoods and cities. You’ll get hands-on experiences in Waco with the founder of Mission Waco/Mission World, a recognized 30-year-old ministry.

Law and Public Service

PPS 1100-04 & 1100-05, 1 hour, Wednesdays, 2:30-3:20 & 3:35-4:25pm

Instructor: Kent McKeever, Founder of Greater Waco Legal Services

In addition to one weekly classroom hour focused on the ways the law can be used to serve, students must complete a minimum of 30 volunteer hours. The volunteer requirement may include public service at local legal aid clinics, veteran’s assistance clinics, immigration clinics, and other pro bono organizations.  As part of the 30-hour requirement, a student may elect to participate in up to 10 hours of courtroom observation.

Family Community Medicine

PPS 1100-07, 1 hour, Wednesdays, 2:30-3:20pm

Instructor: Jeremy Korteweg, Waco Family Medicine

Students in this course discuss primary care family medicine for disadvantaged communities and volunteer weekly in clinics at Waco Family Medicine. (List for max of 10 students)

Urban Farmers Markets

PPS 1100-08 & 1100-16, 1 hour, Tuesdays, 2:00-2:50pm & Thursdays, 2:00-2:50pm

Instructor: Bethel Erickson, Waco Downtown Farmers Market Director

This course explores the connection between small business and the local food and farming community - through the operation of an alternative marketplace. Students will learn how the Waco Downtown Farmers Market addresses food access, supports entrepreneurship, and builds community by engaging in weekly discussions and readings that investigate the various parts of the food system. Students will also spend 10 hours outside of the classroom volunteering with the farmers market or market vendors. 

Advocacy for Children and Families

PPS 1100-09, 1 hour, Fridays, 12:20-1:10pm

Instructor: Dr. Kerry Burkley, Program Director, Children’s Advocacy Center

Students in this course discuss the specific impact of how trauma affects individuals and how a ministry of hope increases the likelihood of generating a “new normal” in which a family can survive and thrive.  Students will also engage research-based group dynamics that help facilitate a more open approach to helping families in crisis.

Trauma Advocacy 

PPS 1100-10, 1 hour, Fridays, 1:25-2:15pm

Instructor: Dr. Kerry Burkley, Program Director, Children’s Advocacy Center

This course engages students in becoming informed leaders and community responders, and in becoming advocates for the protection of those affected by child abuse.  Effort will also be made to help students process how churches and religious organizations can engage activity for holistic community change regarding child abuse.

Community Gardening

PPS 1100-11 & 1100-12, 1 hour, Thursdays, 9:30-10:20 & 11:00-11:50am

Instructor: Doug Nesmith, Lab Coordinator, Baylor Environmental Science

In this course students learn the value of community gardens in schools and urban areas.  Through volunteerism, students will learn how community gardens provide fresh produce as well as neighborhood improvement, sense of community and connection to the environment.

Accompanying Immigrants in Waco

PPS 1100-13 & 1100-17, 1 hour, Tuesdays, 3:30-4:20 pm, & Thursdays, 3:30-4:20 pm

Instructor: Israel Loachamín, Executive Director, La Puerta

This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the journey of a Spanish-speaking immigrant in Waco to develop an awareness of the unique and rich community that the U.S. has. Students will explore the journey of a Spanish-speaking immigrant through reading, journaling, volunteering with La Puerta, and class discussions.

Transforming Child Poverty

PPS 1100-14 & 1100-18, 1 hour, Mondays, 3:35-4:25pm, & Wednesdays, 3:35-4:25pm

Instructor: Sarah Pedrotti, Transformation Waco

Working with Transformation Waco, this course explores the consequences of child poverty in Waco and attends to the role cross-sector collaboration, community schools, and wrap-around services play in mitigating disadvantage.  Students will volunteer with Transformation Waco over the course of the semester. By the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of child poverty, how schools operate as community hubs, and how they can work towards solutions to child poverty in their respective fields of work. 

Community Data and Research

PPS 1100-15, 1 hour, Mondays, 5:30-6:25pm

Instructor: Jeremy Rhodes,  Senior Director of Data & Research, Prosper Waco

Engaging and partnering with community members and entities in research, sometimes in the form of research practice partnership, can be a powerful mechanism for ensuring  research and data is appropriately situated within the context and utilized for social change. Students will learn how to apply research methods and data analysis to local organizations focused on social impact. Partnering with Prosper Waco, students will implement a community-engaged research project.

Food and Sustainability

PPS 1100-19 & 1100-20, Mondays, 3:35-4:25pm, & Wednesdays, 3:35-4:25pm

Instructor: Sky Toney, World Hunger Relief Farm

This course invites students to explore the realities of industrial and local food systems, inequities in food access and distribution, and environmental sustainability while also getting their hands dirty on at World Hunger Relief Institute Farm in Waco, Texas. Students will assist weekly with orchard, gardens, livestock, and other farm projects.

Arts and Social Change

PPS 1100-21, Tuesdays, 8:00-8:50am

Instructor: Soledad Bautista, Director of Professional Development and Outreach, Creative Waco

Alongside partners at Creative Waco, students will pursue Design Thinking projects as a
collective healing tool for meaningful change in communities. Understanding the power and 
limitless potential of the creative and arts economy will help us see ourselves as contributors of the  cultural heritage and the public good of any and all of the places that we inhabit.

Practicing Restorative Justice

PPS 1100-23, Wednesdays, 2:30-3:20pm

Instructor: Tasha Roberts, Director of Public Affairs, Baylor Collaborative for Hunger and Poverty

Practicing Restorative Justice will introduce students to foundational concepts of restorative justice and food security. Students will partner with Baylor’s Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty to develop a food security interventions addressing re-entry food security challenges faced by formerly incarcerated individuals.

Community Law Enforcement

PPS 1102-01, 1 hour, Wednesdays, 10:10-11:00am

Instructor: Robert Lanning, Assistant Police Chief, Waco Police Department

This course provides students an opportunity to interact with and listen to federal, state, county, and municipal government officials and understand how they function. The students are exposed to 12-14 guest lectures from all areas mentioned. The focus is on management and law enforcement and class discussions are held on hot topics such as racial profiling, use of force, etc. The course involves guest speakers such as federal agents, district attorney representatives, state police, municipal police, county police, S.W.A.T. teams and crime scene experts.

Community-Based Global Learning

PPS 2101 (4 sections), 1 hour, Wednesdays, 8:00-8:50 AM

Instructors: Anna Beaudry, Rebecca Flavin, Dwayne Simmons, and Bo White, Baylor Office of Engaged Learning

In this course students explore concepts of power and privilege relating to global citizenship, service, and community-driven efforts. Students will be assigned leadership roles related to Engaged Learning courses at Baylor and will experience ethical, critical, and decolonial community-based learning and research practices.

Leadership and Social Change

PPS 2302-01, 3 hours, Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Leia Duncan, Baylor & Beyond LLC

This course illuminates the theory and practice of leading groups toward positive social change locally and globally, emphasizing issues such as poverty, public education, and systemic inequality. All students will learn from community engagement projects and activities on best practices for leading change. The primary goal for this course is for each
student to think about their role as a contributing global citizen.

Law, Justice, and the Community

PPS 337201, 3 hours, Mondays & Wednesdays, 4:40-5:30 PM

Cross listed with PSC 3372

Instructor: Chris Galeczka, Baylor Law School

Introduction to legal practice. Contains community service component and required internship in legal offices.

Philanthropy and the Public Good

PPS 4310, 3 hours, Wednesdays, 12:20-3:05pm

Cross listed with SOC 4312

Instructor: Andy Hogue & Mark Richards, Baylor Office of Engaged Learning

This course is designed to provide an understanding of the role of philanthropy in shaping public life and investigate charity’s relationship to power in contemporary social institutions. Students will apply disciplinary knowledge towards stewarding 100,000 dollars to the Waco community in partnership with local social sector organizations.