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Expand your skills and knowledge - and broaden your professional network - with a graduate certificate in Social Innovation for Global Impact. Earning the certificate, which blends entrepreneurship and innovation with social activism, signals that you have an interest and competence in working across sectors to address old problems in new ways.

Work toward this symbol of your professional achievement to:

  • Make you more valuable to your current employer.
  • Give you a taste of graduate school – AU allows you to apply up to 12 certificate credits toward a graduate degree program at SIS.
  • Support a career shift or help launch a second career.

Social Innovation for Global Impact (Graduate Certificate)

Offered by the School of International Service, the Social Innovation for Global Impact (Graduate Certificate) equips students with the knowledge and skills to apply techniques of innovation to social change and activism in a global context, with a special emphasis on human rights, peacekeeping, governance and international development. It has both a curricular and co-curricular component.

Admission to the Program

This certificate is available to students currently enrolled in an American University graduate degree program. It is also open to students with a bachelor's degree or equivalent from an accredited institution. Applicants must submit their official transcripts along with a one-page statement of purpose.

Non-native English speakers are required to submit results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) unless they hold a degree from a U.S.-accredited institution before enrollment at SIS. The minimum TOEFL score for full admission consideration is 100 on the Internet-based test (iBT) or 600 on the paper-based test (PBT). The minimum IELTS score is 7.0.

Certificate Requirements

  • 12 credit hours with grades of C or better, including at least 6 credit hours at or above 600-level
  • Complete the SIS Social Innovation Fellows (SIF) co-curricular program
  • Compliance with all regulations for a certificate (Graduate Academic Regulations 4.11, 5, 6)

Course Requirements

Competence Acquisition (9 credit hours)

Complete 9 credits from the following, or other social innovation-related courses approved by faculty advisor:

Competence Application (3 credit hours)

Complete 3 credit hours from the following, or other courses approved by faculty advisor: