Certificate Program

Explore your passion.

In the 2017-2018 academic year, Penn Charter’s Upper School started a Certificate Program for students in 11th and 12 grade. The purpose of certificates is to engage students who are looking to integrate different aspects of the Upper School program around a particular focus and passion in their junior and senior years.

"The certificate programs align students' passion with Quaker values. Our faculty designed the certificate programs to open time and space for deep discovery, thinking, and connectivity to the existing curriculum across many departments." Travis Larrabee, director of strategic initiatives

Key Characteristics

Through pursuit of a certificate, students will integrate coursework, projects, activities and a Senior Comprehensive Project (SCP) around a particular theme. For more specifics on requirements, see the Upper School Certificate Handbook.

There are three skills and competencies that the certificate programs aim to develop in students:

Seeking Truth: Students investigate and uncover different perspectives, and reflect upon challenges and conflicts.
Building Empathy: By listening, being vulnerable and connecting with others, students build empathy and understanding.
Letting Your Life Speak: Students explore ways to lead, communicate and act on issues of justice and the common good.

Graduation Requirements

There are four main components to all certificate work:

Course credits (a selected number of courses will be noted in each certificate)
Three major projects (examples are given for each certificate below)
80 activity hours across junior and senior years.
SCP (Senior Comprehensive Project) that is centered around the certificate theme

Certificates Offered in 2020-21

Certificate in Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability
Certificate in Global Studes

Certificate in Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability

Certificate in Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability: CESS

This certificate builds upon our Quaker testimony of stewardship and aims to build the critical thinking skills needed to explore the complex issues of environmental sustainability. Through coursework and real world engagement, students will build the necessary capacities to find solutions to our collective environmental challenges. The following four components are required, but particular projects and activities will be open to student interest and inquiry.

Three Environmental Credits:

Students must complete at least three units/credits (3 semesters) in any of the following courses. You must earn a B average or higher in these selected courses to apply the credit towards the certificate. Note that not every course listed here will be offered in a particular academic year. Check the departmental course listing for more information.

Science

AP Environmental Science (2 units)
AP Biology (2 units)
Earth and Space Science (2 units)
The Natural History of the Wissahickon (1 unit)
Ornithology (1 unit)

Religious Studies and Philosophy

Environmental Ethics (1 unit)

Physical Education

Outdoor Education (.33 units)

English

Imagining the Natural World (1 unit)

Three Major Projects:

Students must complete at least three major projects during the course of their Junior and Senior years. Projects can take a variety of forms and can be (but are not required to be) connected to coursework. All projects should contain the following three aspects: research, a final product(s), and an audience. The following are examples of CESS projects.

US History Term Paper: exploring topics such as the rise of the conservation movement, the need for clean water and public sanitation before 1870, etc.
English Capstone Project: exploring nature imagery in American poetry, the Transcendental movement, etc.
Creating informational videos about electronic recycling drives at Penn Charter
A workshop for Friends Multicultural Day on a theme of sustainability

80 Activity Hours:

Student must complete at least 80 hours of activity credit over two years. As part of the Upper School Activity Requirement, students are required to complete two major activities per year. One of the activities must be a sport, and the second can be a 40-hour activity or a second sport. For students pursuing the certificate, they can apply this existing 40-hour activity requirement with a focus on environmental activities. They would need to complete a total of 80 hours of environmental activity. Many of these activities are offered through PC environmental clubs and events. A maximum of 20 out of the 80 hours could be completed in the summer. Some of these activities could include

Trail work or educational programming through Friends of the Wissahickon
On campus assistance with waste management including: upcycling, composting, recycling, electronic waste drives, etc.
Campus Learning Gardens support
Camping and Outdoor trips

80 Hour SCP:

Senior Comprehensive Project (SCP) should function as an environmental "capstone" to their certificate work. Through coursework, projects, and activity hours, we hope that individual students during the month of May in their 12th grade year will want to focus on a particular environmental theme in their SCP. These projects might include:

Protecting our watersheds and issues of drinking water
Exploring aspects of environmental law and policy
Poverty and access to healthy environmental commons (air, water, soil, food)

Students will connect a particular environmental theme with a "public purpose" lens in their SCP. While all 12th grade students are required to complete an SCP, those pursuing the certificate will work with the SCP advisor as well as the advisor for the Certificate in Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability to complete their SCP.

Certificate in Global Studes

Certificate in Global Studies: CGS

Global competency is defined as the capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance (Boix Mansilla & Jackson 2011). As part of their work towards certification, students will work to build critical thinking skills in order to investigate our world and recognize the diverse perspectives necessary to face issues of global significance. The following four components are required for this certificate, but particular projects and activities will be open to students interest and inquiry.

Three Global Studies Credits + 4 years of a language:

Students must complete four years of a language in the Upper School.
Students must complete at least three units/credits (3 semesters) in any of the following courses. You must earn a B average or higher in these selected courses to apply the credit towards the certificate. Note that not every course listed here will be offered in a particular academic year. Check the departmental course listing for more information.

English

Where East Meets West (1 unit)
Caribbean Literature (1 unit)
Evolution of War (1 unit)

Performing Arts

Theater from Around the World (1 unit)

Visual Art

Art and Social Justice (1 unit)

Religious Studies and Philosophy

Comparative Religions 1 and II (2 units)

Social Studies

Nationalism (1 unit)
American Foreign Policy 21st Century (1 unit)
Cultural Competence for the 21st Century (1 unit)
Global Issues (1 unit)
AP Art History (2 units)

Three Major Projects:

Students must complete at least three major projects during the course of their Junior and Senior years. Projects can take a variety of forms and can be (but are not required to be) connected to coursework. All projects should contain the following three aspects: research, a final product(s), and an audience. The following are examples of CGS projects.

US History Term Paper: exploring topics such as US-international relations
English Capstone Project: for example, exploring themes of immigrant voices in literature
A workshop for Friends Multicultural Day on a theme of global community such as Latinxs in the United States

80 Activity Hours:

Student must complete at least 80 hours of activity credit over two years. As part of the Upper School Activity Requirement, students are required to complete two major activities per year. One of the activities must be a sport, and the second can be a 40-hour activity or a second sport. For students pursuing the certificate, they can apply this existing 40-hour activity requirement with a focus on global studies. They would need to complete a total of 80 hours of activities related to global studies. Many of these activities are offered through PC clubs and events which relate to issues of global issues. A maximum of 20 out of the 80 hours could be completed in the summer. Some of these activities could include

Attending a lecture or presentation
Organizing and leading a lesson in Amigos, French club, or Chinese club
International trips, through Penn Charter or other organizations

80-Hour SCP:

Senior Comprehensive Project (SCP) should function as a global studies "capstone" to their certificate work. Through coursework, projects, and activity hours, we hope that individual students during the month of May in their 12th grade year will want to focus on a particular global theme in their SCP. These projects might include:

Working with an immigrant community in Philadelphia
Exploring bilingual education in area schools

Students will connect a particular global theme with a "public purpose" lens in their SCP. While all 12th grade students are required to complete an SCP, those pursuing the certificate will work with the SCP advisor as well as the advisor for the Certificate in Global Studies to complete their SCP.

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