Students in DIP programs engage beyond the classroom by interning and volunteering with organizations in the local community, the United States, and around the globe. They bring their academic learning and their enthusiasm to non-profit organizations in need of extra hands and the students gain real-world learning and skills.

Students in DIP programs are offered courses which combine academic coursework and engagement in the local and/or global community. Examples of these courses include:

• LATS:3100 - Latinx Community Engagement partners with the Center for Worker Justice in Iowa City.
• GHS:4001 - Social Entrepreneurship & Global Health partners with Community Health Initiative-Haiti.

Public Engagement in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The University of Iowa’s core mission extends beyond the classrooms, laboratories, studios, and libraries where we educate students, conduct our research, and create new artistic work. Equally important is our engagement with communities throughout Iowa, across the nation, and around the world. 

Our faculty, students, and staff work to solve problems, imagine new approaches to challenges, and improve quality of life, often through service-learning courses in which students earn academic credit. 

It’s a virtuous circle: When UI expertise is harnessed to help a community or region improve the lives of its residents, the experience adds unique educational value to students’ academic journeys, and advances the research and creative production of our faculty. In turn, that new knowledge empowers us to help more communities, solve more problems, and improve more lives. 

The UI is not just the University of Iowa, we're the University for Iowa—and throughout the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, we are proud to serve.