The Center for Law and Advocacy

Systems of Power is a course designed to introduce students to the legal, social, political, and economic forces that wield power and shape culture in our society. Throughout the semester, this class will explore the foundations of government to evaluate how governmental powers have been used and distributed, as well as how those powers have evolved over time. This broad survey of societal power dynamics will prepare students to engage future Law & Advocacy course material and better understand the nuances of civil discourse.

Grade Level: 9-10
Length: One Semester
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or general elective

AP Human Geography introduces high school students to college-level introductory human geography or cultural geography. The content is presented thematically rather than regionally and is organized around the discipline’s main subfields: economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography. The approach is spatial and problem oriented. Case studies are drawn from all world regions, with an emphasis on understanding the world in which we live today. Historical information serves to enrich analysis of the impacts of phenomena such as globalization, colonialism, and human– environment relationships on places, regions, cultural landscapes, and patterns of interaction. Students will explore a wide range of topics such as population, culture, political organization of space, economic development, and urbanization. The goal for the course is for students to engage with these contemporary global issues through a Christian worldview by looking for ways to approach problems through a lens of service.

Grade Level: 9-10-11-12
Length: Year
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement or Inquiry + Design Endorsement and/or general elective

True Crime is a course designed to give students a true to life look into the United States Justice System. By examining infamous crimes and considering the system’s triumphs and miscarriages of justice, students will learn about the roles played by law enforcement, victims, and offenders. Students will grapple with the Biblical mandate to do justice and love mercy in the context of the criminal justice system.

Grade Level: 10-11-12
Length: One Semester Geography, or Instructor Approval
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or general elective

Echo Chambers is a course designed to expose students to complex, multi- dimensional cultural issues from a policy perspective. By looking closely at events that have precipitated major legal and political precedents, students will develop the skills to identify and analyze competing political ideologies through the lens of the Gospel. This class will equip them to critically evaluate political movements, as well as the voices that promote them, with the goal of identifying expertise, intellectual honesty, and substantiating activism in a politically divided society.

Grade Level: 10-11-12
Length: One Semester
Prerequisite: Systems of Power, AP Human Geography, or Instructor Approval
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or general elective

Wicked Problems is a course designed to look deeply into several widespread criminal enterprises that afflict large portions of American Society. Students will investigate the complex ecosystems that feed these enterprises, identifying their tentacles through the broad socioeconomic, communal, and familial conditions that create them and tracing them all the way to the root of evil in every human heart. This class will equip students to both recognize risk in their own paths and deftly contend against these issues on the frontlines of Kingdom work.

Grade Level: 10-11
Length: One Semester
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement or Inquiry + Design Endorsement and/or general elective

This TELOS project-based upper level course will require students to synthesize their knowledge of the many components of the Criminal Justice System and apply it by identifying changes they believe will improve that system. Students will spend the semester researching and assembling a comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform package to present to the class.

Grade Level: 11-12
Length: One Semester
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or general elective

This TELOS project-based upper level course will require students to participate in a mock Senatorial election. They will self- determine candidates and campaign staffs for both a primary and general election. Students will spend the course building a platform, creating campaign materials, and campaigning actively on campus. The general election will be decided by the student body in the upper school.

Grade Level: 11-12
Length: One Semester
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or general elective

This TELOS project-based upper level course will require students to partner with a non- profit organization of their choice and offer collaborative support for administration, marketing, communications, or field work. Students will creatively determine how to use their resources as students to provide substantive value in the field of social impact. This class will culminate in either a capstone project of a student’s services rendered or a comprehensive blueprint of a new social impact endeavor.

Grade Level: 11-12
Length: One Semester
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or general elective

This full-year AP course in Psychology introduces the systematic and scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of human beings and other animals. This course provides instruction in the history
of psychology, origins of psychology, research methods, biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, states of consciousness, learning, cognition, motivation and emotion, developmental psychology, personality, testing and individual differences, abnormal psychology, treatment of psychological disorders, and social psychology. Those who have not previously taken psychology may take AP Psychology in lieu of CP Psychology, but may not take both.

Grade Level: 10-11-12 Length: Year
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or Social Studies Credit

Nonprofits are relationship-driven, community-focused and have the largest power to actually make change in the world. They are organizations that exist
for educational or charitable reasons, with the ultimate goal of improving society and people’s lives. This gateway class will focus on giving students ways to connect, by using their passions for technology and social media, as well as entrepreneurship, to dig deeper to find causes with which they can identify and make a difference, whether it’s locally or halfway around the world. By focusing on the ideas of advocacy and non-profits, it will prepare students for the applicable skills needed to serve under- represented and need-based populations in mostly non-profit and /or governmental agencies. I Peter 4:8-11

Grade Level: 9-10-11-12
Length: One Semester
Credits Apply Toward: Law + Advocacy Endorsement and/or general elective