A Life-changing Education Accessible Anywhere in the World
At Future Generations University, you can learn with and from a community of global leaders passionate about making lasting change that improves life, advances justice, sustains people and planet all over the world and in your community.
The Master's Degree
The Master’s in Applied Community Development, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, equips leaders with knowledge, skills, and real-world expertise that transforms all aspects of communities. Synchronous, live-online classes mean you don’t need to relocate or put any part of your life on hold while you’re enrolled. Your classroom has no walls – it is your community.
In-Person place-based immersion courses
Residential Field Courses
Place-based, immersive learning opportunities are offered for elective in-person, applied education on location with your peers. Each Field Course applies special emphasis on topics specific to the locale and region.
learning opportunities on your terms
Personalized Learning
Student-directed, relevant coursework may be completed for credit including independent research, independent projects, or internships with research faculty or instructional faculty mentors. Community Engagement divisions offer opportunities in Appalachia and Himalaya for students interested in agroforestry, youth education, environmental conservation, and more.
Contact Paula Collier, registrar, to discuss your research, project or internship ideas, then fill out the application forms below.
professional development with immediate impact
Certificates
Not ready for a master’s degree but still want to build your skills in sustainable development and community resilience? Earn a Certificate in Applied Community Development to deepen your understanding or as part of your journey in higher education. This program can be taken by anyone interested in learning, regardless of educational background and offers a flexible course load.
Faculty and Researchers
Study global best practices with experts in community development, and learn how to adapt and apply them to your local community context.
Future Generations focuses on research that is useful to communities. This approach unites scholars and practitioners at the local level with communities to discover usable and affordable solutions for positive social change.
Designed to be flexible around your priorities
Courses We Teach
Earn your Master’s degree with 32 credits achieved through a combination of classes and residential courses, independent study and research, internship, prior learning assessment, and transfer credits.
Applied, field-based research to offer replicable solutions
Participatory Action Research
Future Generations University employs research professors, instructors, and professional staff to put methodologies taught in the Master’s program into real-world practice. The Community Engagement division develops tools, educational materials, digital resources, hands-on workshops, professional certificates, and strategic partnerships that help individuals, businesses, and populations flourish.
Future Generations University leads the world in alternative tree syrup research. We revolutionized conservation practices and empowered women and girls in the remote Barun Valley in Himalaya. We’ve impacted Home Health Action in five countries—where mothers are the care providers, homes are the primary care facilities, and behavior change is the lasting health intervention.
A Different Way to do Research
Publications
Research at Future Generations is applied—this means it benefits people and is done in partnership. Communities are neither targets of research nor free labor used by the research. Their people jointly carry out the research, and they are the context to which maturing knowledge returns.
A Theory of Change that Doubles Your Impact in Half the Time at One-Fifth the Cost
SEED-SCALE
SEED-SCALE provides a process where people create their future in accord with what they have and what they desire. It is the cornerstone of community change taught at Future Generations University and practiced by its research faculty.
SEED-SCALE offers a process by which almost any community can, from within, direct change. SEED-SCALE is a comprehensive approach with usable tools—but it is more than a roadmap. It is a system of thought distinctive in presenting how change emerges from inside groups of people.
SEED-SCALE provides a framework that shows you where to start, what the working team should be, how to decide among choices, and what are achievable outcomes for your community. Thus, SEED-SCALE offers a set of principles, processes, and criteria by which to evaluate impact as it is complementary and not in competition with other well-researched, effective tools and approaches.
