The River Program

In The Leadership Kitchen: Serving Others Through Creativity and Collaboration, students will explore the principles of servant leadership through a hands-on, creative, and community-centered lens. Using the metaphor of a kitchen—a space where cooperation, timing, and respect are essential—students will examine what it means to lead by serving others. Enrollment in this course entails participation in experiential learning activities, which may include field trips or community site visits. These activities could require students to arrange their own transportation via public or personal means. A detailed schedule and expectations will be provided in the syllabus and course calendar during the first week of class. While accommodations may be made when necessary, students are expected to prioritize attendance at all scheduled events. Students unable to attend a scheduled event should contact the instructor to discuss alternative assignments

Voices of the Community: Creating Community Through Music and Creative Inquiry” brings students together to explore how music can spark connection, collaboration, and meaningful dialogue across diverse perspectives. Through hands on projects and partnerships with the local community, the class transforms creative ideas into shared experiences that resonate beyond the classroom.

Examine real and virtual collections and consider how humans use collections to create order, educate the public, preserve history, develop understanding, and create meaning, narrative and identity. Your personal story and collecting interests will serve as a final project.

A cross-disciplinary project that focuses on the community impact of the fine arts to include the inner and outer workings of the arts through a concert experience for regional K-12 students.

"Since its invention, photography has served as a medium for documenting, understanding, and interpreting the world. This course will focus on how to view and interpret vernacular, documentary, and fine art photography, how to create and sequence images, and how to curate photographs for exhibition. This course will include guided field trips to local and regional museums, where we will meet with experts in the field to discuss the history and current state of photography."

This course helps students connect their personal interests to possible professional pathways by developing a business concept for a for-profit or not-for-profit organization. Students will identify a business type, define products or services, create a feasible budget, and use technology, feedback, and collaboration to refine their ideas. By the end of the course, students will present a practical business plan that reflects their interests, goals, and potential community or market impact.

This course is intended to build a student's ability to communicate in a professionalmanner in a number of business-related situations. The course will use individual andgroup exercises build presentation, negotiation, and debating skills. The exercises will beaugmented by an examination of current literature and presentations by communityprofessionals whose duties involve intense communication with relevant stakeholders.

This course is intended to build a student's ability to communicate in a professionalmanner in a number of business-related situations. The course will use individual andgroup exercises build presentation, negotiation, and debating skills. The exercises will beaugmented by an examination of current literature and presentations by communityprofessionals whose duties involve intense communication with relevant stakeholders.

Global Business Analytics for Community Impact connects students with local organizations to tackle real-world challenges tied to the global economy using Excel-based analytics, international business concepts, and community-focused design. Through team projects and fieldwork, students strengthen problem-solving, communication, emotional intelligence, and project management skills while delivering practical insights for community partners.

Global Business Analytics for Community Impact connects students with local organizations to tackle real-world challenges tied to the global economy using Excel-based analytics, international business concepts, and community-focused design. Through team projects and fieldwork, students strengthen problem-solving, communication, emotional intelligence, and project management skills while delivering practical insights for community partners.

This course will have pre-service teachers engaging with the practices of science and engineering. The focus will be on understanding what it means for elementary students to "do" science in the classroom. Pre-service teachers will developing lessons to generate interest and will have the opportunity to model those lessons in a local classroom.

This course prepares you to design meaningful, community‑connected learning experiences by applying the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Five Core Propositions in real-world contexts. Through collaborative projects and problem‑solving, you will connect theory to practice while developing the skills needed to support children, engage with communities, and address authentic challenges.

This course introduces principles and practices for building partnerships with local community organizations to support the holistic success of K–12 students. Through service-learning, counseling micro-skills role plays, and collaborative experiences, students develop practical skills while examining systemic barriers and effective strategies to meet diverse student needs.

AI-Powered Community Innovation is an online course where students develop leadership, teamwork, and career-ready skills by designing digital solutions to real community challenges using AI tools like ChatGPT. Working in interdisciplinary teams, they create practical products such as prototypes or dashboards and present their work in a virtual showcase with feedback from community partners.

Students will explore the intersection of biology, computation, and scientific contribution through crowdsourcing. Through hands-on activities with games and interactive tools, students will investigate biomolecular (such as Protein, RNA etc.) folding, test strategies, and seek answer to real scientific questions.

"The course is designed to provide students with an overview of the issues, approaches, and techniques health professionals utilize in planning programs. Students will gain experiential learning attitudes as they participate in and implement a community event held annually by the Health Science program. Additionally, students will develop skills in healthcare marketing and communication by creating materials such as infographics and videos. Emphasis will be on developing the program planning skills required in Community Health & Public Health settings . "

This course explores the foundations, history, and contemporary practice of health education and health promotion. Emphasis is placed on the historical development of the field, major learning and behavior-change theories, emerging trends, and the roles of health educators across public health, community, clinical, school, and workplace settings. The course also supports students in examining Health Education and Promotion as a potential major and career pathway.

In this course, students will explore the essential components of managing and leading a nonprofit organization. Through lectures, discussions, and guest presentations from nonprofit leaders, students will gain insights into the real-world challenges and successes of nonprofit management specifically in adapted sports setting.

Explore health careers while creating hands-on learning experiences for elementary students in local schools. Design interactive activities, build teamwork and leadership skills, and help inspire the next generation during a culminating Health Heroes Exploration Day.

Want to learn how to cultivate wellness in yourself while also encouraging it in your friends, family, and community? In this course, students will explore their personal relationship to the concept of well-being, learn and practice skills that promote healthy and sustainable behaviors, and collaborate together to create projects that promote positive outcomes in the world around us.

Discover Columbus’s creative soul and cultural identity by diving into Columbus arts traditions as we explore works by past and present writers, musicians, and visual artists—like Tom Wiggins, Ma Rainey, Carson McCullers, Alma Thomas, Eddie Owens Martin, Bo Barlett, Amy Sherald, and others. Through hands‑on archival research, museum and public art site visits, and collaborative projects, students will experience how these creators transformed local history while becoming part of the community’s vibrant arts scene themselves.

The purpose of this course is to uncover the hidden histories of CSU, Columbus, and the Chattahoochee Valley by embracing creativity, critical thinking, and interdisciplinarity. Students will work in groups to research, design, and create innovative ways to share their findings via digital exhibits or maps, podcasts, special exhibits, walking tours, new historic markers, and/or special events

Each section of the course is themed around current concepts that spark curiosity and innovation. This is your chance to sharpen your critical and creative thinking, boost your professional communication skills, and thrive in collaborative learning environments. You’ll also have the opportunity to get involved in research, to socially engage, and to develop community leadership skills. The course will culminate with you showcasing your learning through a dynamic hands-on project, giving a public presentation, or creating a display that highlights your passions and connects to your future career.

Take a deep dive into the most pressing challenges and opportunities in the Americas today and collaborate to create solutions to real-world concerns. Work closely with Columbus-based community partners and paticipate in relevant course excursions.

This course aims to develop students' confidence, interpersonal skills, and leadership abilities to help them succeed in college and beyond.

Examine how local civil rights and nonviolent movements shaped communities and social change through a sociology-focused, project-based course. Using archival research, oral-history interviews, and community engagement, students analyze systems of inequality, collective action, and community resistance while developing research and storytelling skills that preserve overlooked local histories.

AI x Local Impact: Branding & Storytelling for Local Businesses is a community-engaged course in which students apply generative AI skills to support small businesses and organizations in the Columbus area through branding, digital storytelling, and promotional content creation. Through field research and collaboration with community partners, students develop ethical, culturally responsive media projects while strengthening their creativity, problem-solving skills, and civic engagement. .

This course explores the way maps represent human perception of the world and the way those perceptions have evolved as the art, science, and technology of map-making has improved. Students will also learn techniques for constructing analog and digital maps.

How can leadership create lasting change? This course introduces students to servant leadership (SL) as a practical framework for effective, transformational leadership

This course will introduce major theories and key elements of community psychology and arts-based activism. Learners will demonstrate how they can effect change in a way that is both artfully expressive and socially transformative.

This course introduces students to applied mathematics through hands-on, problem-based modules designed to connect mathematical concepts to real-world contexts. Students will explore topics such as Overleaf, compound interest, measurement and modeling through the Clock Tower project, and MATLAB. Each module is designed to build practical problem-solving skills, spark curiosity, encourage mathematical innovation, and strengthen critical and creative thinking for use in academic, professional, and everyday settings.

This course explores the chemistry behind everyday household products, innovative laboratory methods, and chemical processes used in local industry. Students will apply chemical concepts in creative and practical ways to address real-world situations, strengthen problem-solving skills, and better understand how chemistry shapes daily life, work, and community needs.

This course introduces students to practical project management in pharmaceutical, industrial, and engineering settings. Students will learn how teams plan, organize, and complete complex projects using both traditional and agile approaches, including Scrum, Lean, and Six Sigma. Topics include risk management, cost planning, team dynamics, process improvement, and business development. Students will apply these concepts through a final project that simulates an industry-based proposal, product launch, or process improvement plan.

Students will explore local health issues, strengthen their understanding of health and science information, and work with community partners to develop practical health education tools. Through these applied projects, students will build skills in teamwork, critical thinking, communication, and civic engagement.

Students will restore a local stream ecosystem while learning how rehabilitation allows streams to provide vital ecosystem services. Students will develop and implement a plan to restore a stretch of a stream within a city park that may include actions like removing invasive species, replanting native vegetation, and stabilizing damaged stream banks.

Explore the challenges of planetary exploration by designing, programming, and operating educational rovers in hands-on team missions. Students will develop engineering, coding, problem-solving, and teamwork skills while navigating dynamic obstacles, making real-time decisions, and communicating mission results.

Students will learn Excel and PowerBI skills to work with data from the Columbus Fire & Emergency Medical Services. Students will tour the fire station and help derive insights from the data to share with firefighters in the community

Stream pollution is one of the most threatening challenges for the health and conservation of many species and for contamination of our drinking water. Through immersive and applied research, you and your team will learn how to quantify pollution and identify threats to organisms including people.

In this course we will be exploring the negative impacts that invasive species have on ecosystems and the ongoing efforts to manage them. We will be discussing invasive species research, analyzing case studies, and conducting research on invasive species right here on campus and in nearby natural areas.

Let's learn cybersecurity concepts and help make CSU Cyber Aware! Enrollment in this course entails participation in experiential learning activities, which may include field trips or community site visits. These activities could require students to arrange their own transportation via public or personal means. A detailed schedule and expectations will be provided in the syllabus and course calendar during the first week of class. While accommodations may be made when necessary, students are expected to prioritize attendance at all scheduled events. Students unable to attend a scheduled event should contact the instructor to discuss alternative assignment

In this course, students will explore how artificial intelligence and data-driven tools can strengthen communities, improve lives, and advance social good across Columbus. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students will partner with local organizations to identify a real social, civic, or community challenge and propose an AI-augmented solution — such as improving access to services, enhancing public safety information, advancing digital equity, or supporting education and wellness.