W'Engage
For Wingate University sophomores, the W’Engage program offers an opportunity to contribute to surrounding communities and travel for 5-7 days to a U.S. destination in order to promote positive social change.
A weekly seminar focuses on a single topic of importance, such as hunger, education or ecology, explored in a course designed to ignite your need to create social change.
W’Engage helps you gain skills you can use for the rest of your life, no matter your major or intended career path. You also earn two hours of academic credit.
Grow as a Person
Throughout the W’Engage program, you grow as a person by developing a greater awareness of and respect for community issues. In addition, you learn to apply ethical reasoning to contemporary local, national and global issues. Students travel and work closely with learning teams and diverse groups. Together, you learn from one another as you have open-minded discussions in which you examine and reflect upon your personal values, assumptions and attitudes.
W'Engage 2023
Experiential Learning Course: Alternative Death Care Practices
Students in this course will learn about various emerging alternative death care practices in the U.S. We will examine environmentally friendly options for burials, including green burials, as well as alternative options for caring for the dying. Students will travel to Asheville and the Western North Carolina regions to learn from various organizations engaged in alternative death care work. Students will also volunteer with a local hospice organization and complete a research project related to alternative death care practices.
Instructor: Dr. Katie Knop
Time: Wednesdays, 5 - 5:50 p.m.
Course Fee: $150, Sophomores only
Contact Dr. Terese J. Lund at t.lund@wingate.edu with any questions.
Find Your Voice
Through the primary-source field research and observations you conduct during the program, you help raise awareness of community concerns. As you analyze the concepts of community, leadership and development, you reflect on what you can do to address social problems. To really inspire those around you, however, you have to be able to get your points across.
Apply Your Knowledge
The program provides the opportunity to put your academic knowledge to use as you explore your topic area through hands-on learning both inside and outside the classroom. W’Engage encourages Wingate University students to identify, compare and contrast differences between their local community and the destinations they visit for field research.
Ready to W’Engage?
- You must have sophomore standing with a 2.3 GPA.
- Students can register via WinLink during regular course registration days by searching for WENGAGE.
- Seminars have limited availability, and the cost is $250.
Previous experiences:
- Hunger and Homelessness (New Orleans)
- Community Policing (Boston)
- Homelessness and LGBT community (NYC)
- Civil Rights and Freedom Riders (Washington DC)
- Sustainable Food Systems (Asheville & Boone)
- Voting Rights (Georgia & Alabama)
- The Housing Crisis in America (Denver)
- Lowcountry Rice Culture (Charleston)