Take Your First Course Towards the Certificate

Classes start July 17, 2025

Bringing Back the Mission of Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies originated in movements for social justice. It was envisioned as a course of study that would provide students with the tools to understand structures of power and domination as well as to dismantle and replace them. That's the kind of curriculum you'll be getting through SLE.


The movements that fought for Ethnic Studies always believed that higher education should be a right for ANYONE with the desire to learn. That's true for SLE as well. All you need to qualify for SLE, including the certificate program, is curiosity, a passion for justice, and a commitment to your own learning and growth. 


To earn the certificate in Applied Ethnic Studies, however, you will be invited to invest time and energy. It is a rigorous 4-course program that will offer college/university-level instruction but without all the barriers that come with applying to college.SLE's fonder, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, a highly accomplished scholar who has served as a university professor for over two decades at some of the most highly ranked public universities in the U.S., is directly overseeing the certificate program to ensure that all courses meet college/university standards of instruction. She will be teaching many of the courses as well. 


What makes SLE's curriculum different from what is taught at a college or university, however, is that all instructors actively engage in social justice work and all assignments they give are meant to  encourage you apply your learnings to some kind of social justice practice. Moreover, you will be working with instructors who center radical love and care in their pedagogy and are committed to your success.


Each course will run for a total of 10 weeks, but, SLE will generally offer each course in 2 parts (5 weeks each). We realize most of you will probably have jobs or other responsibilities, so it may be too hard to commit to full 10-week courses. Another way of thinking about it is that you can earn the certificate by completing 8, 2-part courses. 


Each full 10-week course will be the equivalent of 4 college/university units. 1 unit is 3-5 hours of work a week so 4 units is between 12-20 hours/week of work (or 2.5 to 4 hours in a 5-day work week; that's 1.5 - 3 hours in a 7-day work week). These work hours include the following:

  • instruction time (about 1-2 hours);
  • reading time (1 book takes about 4-5 hours each);
  • assignments (hours for this would vary).

The courses you take toward the certificate are all real-time (synchronous) courses. You will be expected to be on-camera for all class meetings and you are highly encouraged to participate in class discussions. We understand that life happens, so you will be allowed to miss up to 4 meetings for each course. Make-up work may be required. 

Most readings will be posted to the course-site. You may be required to order additional books. 

To earn the certificate, you are required to complete all assignments. We can be flexible in terms of when you submit your assignments; you could submit them 4 months after class meetings end, for example, if you need that kind of time, but you won't be able to earn the certificate until all course work is turned in.

Certificate Requirements Broken Down

(for folks that are more visual)

  • Time Commitment

    Up to 1.5 - 3 hours a day, every day of the week for up to 5 weeks at a time (each course will be offered in 2 parts: part 1 will take 5 weeks; part 2 will take 5 weeks). You will need to complete 4 courses total (8, 2-part courses). Except for the weekly required real-time lecture and discussion, you pick how much time you put into course work. If you don't have tine to put in school work on a daily basis and want to spend your entire weekend on readings and assignments, that's fine too. Just commit to putting in the work.

  • Readings

    You'll be assigned college/university-level readings. Most readings will be available on the course site. You may have to order additional books. Don't feel intimidated about doing readings at this level. We'll help you navigate through them and we'll give you opportunities to connect with other students so you can support one another. We'll also provide you with links to videos or other material that might make the readings easier to digest. When we can, we may even offer you audio recordings of the readings.

  • Assignments

    You'll be expected to complete all the assignments BUT don't get discouraged! SLE is like college but it's NOT college. Assignments we give you may actually require that you volunteer at a local community organization. Other assignments may involve you watching a film or visiting a museum or attending a symposium. You'll just need to provide "proof" of that you did the assignment. We might give you an assignment that connects to what you might be doing at work. For example, if you work for an immigrant-serving non-profit organization, we might have you write a self-reflection on how assigned readings might make you approach your work differently. In fact, some of the assignments aren't really assignments at all. They're more knowledge assessments - that just means that you'll be answering questions about assigned readings or lectures so we can figure out how to fill in any gaps.

Making Knowledge Accessible to All

We are not-for-profit. Our intention is to serve our community. We are committed to ensuring that this certificate program is priced so that it can be affordable to anyone who is interested in committing to it. At the same time, we want to ensure that all our instructors and other staff members are fairly compensated for their work and that costs related to the platform that we use to host the course and any course materials are also covered. We offer monthly payments for all our courses and ensure that scholarships are also available. Also, Dr. Rodriguez and the other instructors she's assembled for SLE frequently bring their knowledge to the community for free. If you can't afford to invest in a course now, you can follow them to find out about other learning opportunities.