Academic Advising
Academic Advising
Guidance for Your
Academic Journey
Academics
Undergraduate Studies
Join an intellectual community dedicated to the pursuit of truth.
Why SCL
Gain the wisdom you need to lead.
Your ambition and sense of purpose are taking you places. Are you prepared for the good you can do in your country, career, and community?
An SCL education takes you into essential questions of justice and friendship, service and happiness—and builds the skills necessary for success.
At the School of Civic Leadership, you’ll find a top-rank interdisciplinary faculty to guide you through serious study of the most important texts of the western intellectual tradition and American constitutional experience.
Join SCL to gain the wisdom and skills you need to lead well.
Explore
Academic Programs
Majors
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Minors & Certificates
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Take the Lead in Any Discipline
Explore your career opportunities with a major or minor in Texas Civic Leadership.
Select a Career Area to explore majors and courses that match your Interest:
Government & Policy
Health Professions
National Security
Public Services & Education
Legal Professions
Business & Entrepreneurship
Science & Technology
Find your Path.
Build your Future.
Select a Career Area to explore majors and courses that match your Interest:
Government & Policy
How SCL prepares you for your success in the field:
Your SCL degree prepares you to respond to important questions in government and policy careers, such as: What attracts me to work in government or public affairs? What does it mean to have ambition both to be excellent but also to serve others? How should I think about the consequences, intended and unintended, of regulation or legislation?
Majors in SCL match well with these minor or certificate opportunities across campus:
- Communicating Social Issues Minor
- Communicating for Development and Philanthropy Minor
- Communication Studies Minor
- Journalism and Media Minor
- Health Communication Minor
- Media Studies Minor
- Global Communication Minor
- Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Minor
- Ethics & Leadership in Law, Politics & Government Certificate
- Public Policy Certificate
Health Professions
How SCL prepares you for your success in the field:
Your SCL degree prepares you to respond to important questions in medicine and health, such as: What does it mean to provide care? How can I serve those who suffer? What are the obligations we have to public health?
Majors in SCL match well with these minor or certificate opportunities across campus:
- Pre-Health Professions Certificate
- Social Inequality, Health & Policy Certificate
- Ethics & Leadership in Health Care Certificate
- Patients, Practitioners & Cultures of Care Certificate
National Security
How SCL prepares you for your success in the field:
Your SCL degree prepares you to respond to important questions in national security, such as: What is war? What is peace? How can what I say and do shape outcomes? What is the origin and history of America’s influence in the world? Whose interests matter, and why?
Majors in SCL match well with these minor or certificate opportunities across campus:
- National Security & International Business Minor
- Military Leadership Minor (ROTC)
- Conflict Prevention, Management & Resolution Certificate
Public Services & Education
How SCL prepares you for your success in the field:
Your SCL degree prepares you to respond to important questions in education and public service careers, such as: What kind of education do I need to lead in my community? How can what I learn shape who I am? What traditions have shaped American civic life? What does it mean for a person or for a community to succeed and to thrive?
Majors in SCL match well with these minor or certificate opportunities across campus:
- Digital Humanities Certificate
- American Studies Minor
- Applied Economics Minor
- Classical Studies Minor
- Core Texts and Ideas Minor or Certificate
- Economics Minor
- History Minor
- Government Minor
- Law, Justice, and Society Minor
- Law and Religion Minor
- Military Leadership Minor (ROTC)
- Philosophy of Law Minor
- Philosophy Minor
- Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Minor
- European Studies Minor
- Children & Society Certificate
- Non-Profits & Social Entrepreneurship Certificate
Legal Professions
How SCL prepares you for your success in the field:
Your SCL degree prepares you to respond to important questions in law, such as: What is law? What is the origin and history of the American constitutional system? What should I do when I disagree with the law?
Majors in SCL match well with these minor or certificate opportunities across campus:
- Pre-Law Services
- Core Texts and Ideas Minor or Certificate
- Philosophy of Law Minor
- History Minor
- Government Minor
- Law, Justice, and Society Minor
- Law and Religion Minor
- Military Leadership Minor (ROTC)
- Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Minor
- Human Rights & Social Justice Certificate
- Criminal Law, Justice & Inequality Certificate
Business & Entrepreneurship
How SCL prepares you for your success in the field:
Your SCL degree prepares you to respond to important questions in business and entrepreneurship, such as: What does it mean to want success in business—for myself and for the benefit of others? What kinds of thinking enable me to recognize opportunities? How can I develop the courage to take risks? What is the relationship, and what are the tensions, between democracy and a free economy?
Majors in SCL match well with these minor or certificate opportunities across campus:
- Elements of Business Certificate
- Business Foundations Minor
- Business and Public Policy Minor
- Professional Sales and Business Development
- National Security and International Business Minor
- Leadership in Global Sustainability Minor
- International Business Minor
- Risk Management Minor
- Entrepreneurship Minor
- Ethics & Leadership in Business Certificate
- Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship Certificate
Science & Technology
How SCL prepares you for your success in the field:
Your SCL degree prepares you to respond to important questions in the science and technology fields, such as: What is the purpose of technology? How can I know what is true? How should I use technology to take risks and serve others?
Majors in SCL match well with these minor or certificate opportunities across campus:
- Programming and Computation Certificate
- Statistics and Data Science
- History and Philosophy of Science Certificate
Guidance for Your
What Our
Students Say
“There are so many issues that matter to me, and I came here to figure out how to prioritize them. I believe strongly in justice, equality, and freedom, and how best to implement those ideas in society is what we figure out here. SCL is setting me up long-term with critical-thinking skills, intellectual fellowship, connections, and experience that I will take into the workplace.”
Lillian Weimer
Current SCL Student
“You have the pros of a big state school with a great football team, excellent academics, and a ton of people to meet—but SCL is a really tight-knit group of people. It’s like having a small-town Ivy League college within a big university.”
Jimmy Marrs
Current SCL Student
“I was drawn to Civic Leadership because it's challenging. I love being pushed to read, write, and think deeply. Learning how to read texts written hundreds of years ago and apply them to today's world isn't easy, but that's exactly what makes the program so rewarding."
Isabella Issa
Current SCL Student
“I always knew I wanted to go to law school, but I also wanted an undergraduate major that would keep challenging me and wasn’t ‘one-track.’ Then I found Civics. It brings together so many different topics, and the discussion-based classes encourage us to wrestle with big ideas. I fell in love with it.”
Ella Dillinger
Current SCL Student
“At SCL, there’s not just ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth.’ The professors shape conversations and arguments to get to a point where you’re not just putting your opinion out there—you’re learning. You’re coming to a new and different understanding of a topic.”
Maia Wantz
Current SCL Student
“My professors are some of the most intellectual minds you’ll ever meet. They provide an atmosphere of learning—cultivating education, cultivating conversation—and they teach you to become a better student academically, both in and out of the classroom. They are very personable, and just phenomenal to be around.”
Caleb Echols
Current SCL Student
FAQs
What majors does SCL offer?
SCL offers two majors: Civics Honors and Great Books Honors.
What does Honors mean in SCL?
The honors curriculum in SCL challenges students to cultivate, and then demonstrate, an exceptional level of academic maturity. All SCL academic majors challenge students to intensive reading, writing, and speaking.
The skills students need to lead well are difficult to acquire. SCL faculty, tutors, and mentors guide students in their quest to cultivate habits of careful reading, thoughtful writing, and compelling rhetoric.
SCL offers two honors majors, Civics Honors and Great Books Honors. In Civics Honors, all students complete a thesis and an internship. In Great Books Honors, all students participate in a focused small-group course sequence dedicated to reason, rhetoric, and virtue, then choose from a thesis, capstone, or internship.
What is the starting point for civic education in SCL?
The School of Civic Leadership offers a pre-partisan education that prepares students for success across career paths. Before citizens can deal competently with the issues of the day, they need an education that enables them to wrestle with—and draw on the wisdom of—the traditions that inform American life. Spirited, thoughtful, and open to critical self-reflection, this pre-partisan education introduces students to moral and intellectual resources that can orient their own lives.
What kind of student thrives in SCL?
SCL might be your intellectual home if you want a serious intellectual challenge, you’re eager to do something good in the world, and you’re excited to make friends.
The SCL intellectual challenge centers on intensive reading, writing, speaking, and deliberation. SCL faculty, tutors, and mentors guide students in developing these key leadership skills.
The SCL academic program starts with the big questions: what does it mean to live well? What is justice? How do American constitutional principles enable citizens to think differently and yet live together? SCL majors explore these questions through essential texts of the western intellectual tradition and American constitutional experiment. You’ll thrive in SCL if you want to thoughtfully engage these questions and texts.
Texas Civic Leadership is a fit for students who want to ask big questions and cultivate deep skills to prepare for a life of service across a range of careers.
What kinds of careers would I train for in SCL?
SCL offers a classical and professional education to prepare students for business and entrepreneurship, science and technology, education and law, or public service and diplomacy. Civic leadership starts here.
What kinds of courses can I take?
What kinds of internships can I do?
Can I study abroad?
More SCL
About us
Learn more about the School of Civic Leadership.
Scholarships
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Events
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Find Out What It Means and What It Takes to Be Free
Join a new generation of students on a mission to steward and improve American civic life.
