Opportunity for Women Studies in Catherine of Siena Virtual College (with chance for full scholarships)

[Andrea Lizares Si (HS'73,AB '78)]

Catherine of Siena Virtual College Where mind-bending and heart-rending learning meet

Catherine of Siena Virtual College, a pioneering educational enterprise that offers courses which allow students to see the origin of social, religious and cultural prejudices that have stifled the voices of women and subverted their dreams is beginning its spring term on Easter Monday (April 13) and is offering full and partial scholarships to women in developing countries.

Catherine of Siena College's goal is to empower the women of today to assume positions of leadership in religion and in society. The Courses in gender studies are international and ecumenical in scope with a Catholic/Christian orientation. The courses are aimed at empowering women for agency and leadership all over the world, especially for women in developing countries where access to gender courses and women’s studies courses is limited.

The primary purpose and mission of the college is to engender social transformation where women and men participate as equal partners in faith communities and in society by enabling women who have historically been oppressed and disempowered to assume responsibility and leadership at the local, regional, national, and international level.

By enrolling in these courses women get the unique opportunity of interacting creatively with women elsewhere in the world.

For more on the College, visit the Catherine of Siena website

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Comments from Catherine of Siena students:

This learning experience is so powerful, not least by pointing me in the direction of other things that I need to know and this is the type of learning I like, totally different from spoonfed "facts". --one of our participants

"Our class was so great--we have come so far, trusting one another with our words and trusting the process. I loved it!" --one of our former participants

I found Lesson Three the most stimulating so far. I could feel myself coming down hard on one or two points but feel safe enough in this sphere to do so...and I appreciate the feedback I do get. I loved the beauty of the people at prayer and the mosques pictured in the videos... --a Muslim participant

What impacted me most in was . . . hearing the responses of the women in our learning circle enhancing this story [of the prostitute wiping the feet of Jesus]. . . . Her identity was shifting from being at the mercy and in subjection to finite men, who did not care for her as her Maker did, to being defined by a God who loves her deeply, and provides for her beyond the limitations of even her own finite abilities to provide meaning and life for herself. . . . --a current participant

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ACADEMIC COURSES (Honors and Graduate)
For more information click on the course titles. Please note that whether it is mentioned or not, full and partial scholarships are available for women of developing countries in Asia and Africa.

H7 Women in Islam
50% reduction for Spring Term only

This course examines the sources (Quran and Hadith) and the practice of Islam with a special emphasis (a) upon how women have shaped and continue to shape Islam and (b) upon current issues wherein Muslim women are re-examining their traditions. This course takes non-Muslims into the heart of Islam and allows them to build bridges of solidarity with Muslim women. Muslims, meanwhile, will find a fresh ways of appreciating and evaluating their local Islamic traditions.

This course is built upon the insights of various Muslim scholars, notably, Prof. Asma Barlas from Pakistan, Prof. Leila Ahmed from Egypt, and Prof. Karen Armstrong from the UK.


ENROLL
Course begins 13 April 2009


H14 Role Perceptions of Women in Children’s Literature

All ages and cultures have used story as a means of telling new generations about the past and educating children about desired codes of behavior. Story telling seems to have been important to human beings even before writing became a means to preserve these tales. Accordingly this course will begin by examining the oral and written narratives used by mothers to inculturate their daughters.

You will learn to decipher the hidden wisdom and to discern the social conditioning implied in stories such as "Little Red Riding Hood." Then, once learned, these skills will be applied to modern English literature designed for children. Overall, this course will enable women to recover their past in order to better design the future for their mothers, sisters, and children.

ENROLL
Course begins 13 April 2009


H26 Women’s leadership according to Christian tradition

The course outlines the main stages of women’s involvement in Christian ministry. It sketches the background and details of the ordination of women deacons. It describes the various social and cultural prejudices that gradually caused the ban on women’s leadership functions to be enshrined in Church law. The course also provides a professional approach to the rules of assessing what is, and what is not, genuine Christian Tradition.

ENROLL
Course begins 13 April 2009


H19 Women's ministries according to the Sacred Scriptures

Leadership in the Jesus Movement, as instituted by Jesus Christ, has developed in many ways during the long history of the Church. What was Jesus' original vision? What practices go back to the first century?

As always, the Church is being nourished and challenged by going back to its sources. Small wonder that theological scholars in our own times are re-examining the data provided by the inspired Scriptures. In particular, modern scholarship focuses on the position of Christian women. What functions and ministries were open to them? How did their participation provide an outreach and a charism that was unique to them as women? This course offers participants an in-depth examination of the contemporary discussion of key texts and of the academic findings.

ENROLL
Course begins 13 April 2009


H20 A Prophetic Spirituality of Justice
50% reduction for Spring Term only

This course focuses upon the integral role that "acting justly" plays in the self-understanding promoted by the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faith traditions. Guided by the feminist writing of Dr. Mary Grey, this course enables participants to rediscover the pivotal role that peace-making, doing justice, motherly compassion, respecting the earth, and sharing resources have with the prophetic spirituality of the Abrahamic faiths.

ENROLL
Course begins 13 April 2009


Courses for personal exploration and self-development
All courses are open and running. For more information click on the course titles

P1 Developing an Authentic Personality

This course enables you, in the safe company of other women, to explore how to hear and respond to your own inner voices in the face of religious, cultural, and family expectations. This five-week course uses case studies and women-to-women interaction by way of illustrating the innovative learning style of Catherine College.

P2 Women writing, lives changing--Building word-bridges of solidarity with women in India

Women Writing for (a) Change offers a creative writing experience that supports the lives of women for whom writing is, or is becoming, an important liberative and spiritual practice. This class takes the award-winning techniques designed by Mary Pierce Brosmer and offers them within a cross-cultural online context. Click here for face-to-face courses in Cincinnati.

P3 Developing Management Skills

This course develops your managerial skills. It is designed to coach you in the basic skills that will be useful to you when planning projects or undertaking leadership responsibilities. The course is one way of preparing yourself for making significant changes in your family, your workplace, in your community, and in your world.

If you need some clarification, please send us an email at [e-mail].

Peace and joy in learning,

Like an unexpected pregnancy, you may be carrying the seeds of something that will change your life and the world. Take that seed and bring it into a circle of women, nurture it with wisdom, give it energy, prune what needs pruning, let the tap root go down into the energy field of Mother Earth, to draw from and contribute thought and action to the morphic field, and than take it out into the world to bloom and bear fruit.

Jean Shinoda Bolen – Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World (163).
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