Discover how to use your unique interests, skills, and talents to turn your passion to purpose
DU's Learning Cohorts bring together first-year students and a mentor team who all share a passion, such as care for the environment or the future of health. Together, you’ll discover how your unique interests, skills, and talents prepare you to turn your passion into action – at DU and beyond. Open to all first-year students, Learning Cohorts are perfect for connecting with peers and mentors, digging into the issues that you care about, and turning your passion into purpose.
You'll join a cohort with a dedicated mentor team.
Flexible Schedule
Take a 1-credit sprint course in Winter and another in Spring Quarter developed just for your cohort. Sprints happen outside normally scheduled class periods. From dinners with community leaders to field trips and more, activities are designed to fit into your schedule.
What’s your Why: Explore your interests from different perspectives and uncover the issues that inspire your academic and career passions. Through guided reflections, guest talks, and experiential activities, you’ll discover what matters most to you and what drives you to take action. By the end of the quarter, you will answer the question: What matters so much to me that I’m inspired to take action?
This sprint serves as the first course in DU’s What’s Your Why Learning Cohort sequence.
Here’s Your How: In this course, you’ll move from identifying your passions to exploring concrete ways to take action. Through experiential learning opportunities, guest talks, and guided reflection, you’ll create an Action Plan that connects your interests with academic and professional goals.
As the second course in DU’s What’s Your Why Learning Cohort sequence, this sprint helps you translate inspiration into impact.
Eligibility & Requirements
All first-year students are invited to apply! In fall of your first year, fill out the brief Interest Form below. An invitation to register for your preferred cohort, as noted on the Interest Form, will be sent by the end of the Fall Quarter.
Ready to turn your passion into purpose? Fill out an interest form below:
Yes. Students will register for a 1-credit course in Winter and 1-credit course in Spring. These courses are limited to students in the cohort. When you join the cohort, you will receive registration information.
Yes. Through the Cohort, you'll start meeting community leaders and learn about local organizations as well as explore different ways to get involved in Denver.
Your mentors will support you to develop an action plan that is unique to your interests, skills, and talents. With guidance from your mentors, you'll build a detailed plan for how to translate your interests into action.
The class is a "sprint" structure, which means that it doesn't follow the usual weekly schedule. To earn the 1 credit, you should plan on about 10 hours of scheduled time with your peers and mentors for the quarter. In the first half of the quarter, you will meet with your peers and mentors once for about 4 hours of instruction time. Over the rest of the quarter, you will fulfill the remaining 6 hours through student programming.
You'll take two 1-credit classes with a group of peers. Connected to that class, you'll participate in about 10 hours of activities over the quarter. Activities will include a mix of time with your mentors, community speakers, and field trips, for instance. You'll be invited to other co-curricular events that are encouraged but optional, such as dinners and activities.
Course Sequence
Winter Quarter
What’s Your Why: Understanding the Change You Want to Make in the Future of Health (CENG 1010, 1 credit)
Course Description: You will examine issues related to health innovation and public good from multiple vantage points. As you explore your broad interests, you will begin to identify the specific issues (or problems) that spark your academic interests, career aspirations, and passions. By the end of the quarter, you will answer the question: What matters so much to me that I’m inspired to take action? The first course in a sequence taken by students participating in DU’s What’s Your Why Learning Cohorts, this sprint involves advance assignments to prepare for a one-day class meeting and subsequent experiential activities, such as guest speakers and field trips.
Course objectives include:
Compare and contrast different academic approaches to health innovation.
Compare and contrast different health innovation applications and career pathways.
Describe your academic and career interests in health innovation.
Begin to develop an action plan to pursue signature work (such as internships) connected to your unique interests in health innovation.
Spring Quarter
Here’s Your How: Future of Health (CENG 1011, 1 credit)
Course Description: In the first course in this sequence, you identified an issue that inspires you to take action. Now, you will explore different types of action. After all, students can take many pathways to action, each of which involves a different combination of knowledge, dreams, skills, and talents. For example, DU students can do direct service, policy work, advocacy, innovation, research and more as signature work. By the end of the course, you will map your issue and interests onto an Action Plan. The Action Plan will help you strategically select and connect your academic experiences, build intellectual community, grow mentoring relationships, acquire foundational academic skills, and develop core professional skills on the path to signature work at DU. The second course in a sequence taken by students participating in DU’s What’s Your Why Learning Cohorts, this sprint involves advance assignments to prepare for a one-day class meeting and subsequent experiential activities, such as guest speakers and field trips.
Course objectives include:
Describe multiple pathways to taking action that relate to health innovation.
Compare and contrast the skills, talents, and abilities needed for different pathways to taking action that relates to health innovation.
Develop an action plan to pursue signature work (such as internships) that aligns with health innovation interests.
