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Paul Quinn College is launching a fully online 36-month undergraduate degree in business administration and public policy designed to educate a new generation of change makers.
The Urban Scholars Program will begin next month and is aimed at high-achieving students with “an urgent sense of purpose.” The program was co-designed by Paul Quinn College, a historically Black institution, and the Minerva Project, an ed-tech company that works with colleges to develop innovative education programs.
Urban Scholars will focus on addressing one of three challenges facing urban communities -- closing the multigenerational wealth gap through redistribution of capital, ending the prison-industrial complex through criminal justice reform or providing equitable and accessible health care to all.
Students will study year-round with the exception of a two-month winter break. In their second year, students will be expected to work 15 to 20 hours per week. Employers will provide subsidies and scholarships to students in their second and third years. For Pell-eligible students, the college anticipates less than $7,500 in loan debt for graduates.
“Students no longer want to sit in classrooms for four years and be lectured to over and over again. Instead, today’s college students want to engage in the world around them, from day one,” said Michael J. Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, in a news release. “This program, which focuses only on the most pressing issues of the day, is the future of interdisciplinary, challenge-based education.”
