Grand Challenge Experience courses have been designed for first-year students who are looking to complete general education requirements in a unique classroom setting. 

The classes have been broken down into three sections: Health & Wellness, Inequality & Cultural Understanding, and Sustainability, Energy & the Environment. The program aims to connect students, through their general education classes, to real-world problems and possible solutions. 

Classes are no larger than 25 students, and are taught by some of the University’s best faculty.

All of the classes have the course label of GCL, for Grand Challenge Learning, and have the gen-ed credit in parentheses.

More information can be found at the Grand Challenge Experience courses website. 

Health & Wellness:

GCL 125 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life Science

GCL 125b IALS: IT’S TOXIC!(Life Sciences), Samantha Frost,

GLC 125c IALS: THE MOLECULAR ME (Life Sciences), Jeff Moore

GCL 125d IALS: EXPERIENTIAL ANATOMY (Life Sciences), Rebecca Nettl-Fiol,

GCL 188 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Health and Society (Literature)

GCL 188a IAHSL: DOCTORS AND PATIENTS (Literature), Stephanie Hilger,

GCL 188b IAHSL: GLOBAL Epidemics (Literature), Ramón Soto-Crespo,

GCL 186 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Health and Society (Social Science)

GCL 186a IAHSS: STRESS AND HEALTH IN URBAN COMMUNITIES (Social Science), Ruby Mendenhall,

GCL 186c IAHSS: SEX ED PANIC! (Social Science), Chantal Nadeau,

Inequality & Cultural Understanding:

GCL 137a DOCUMENTING INEQUALITY (Art), Terri Weissman and Ryan Griffis

GCL 145 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Justice (Art)

GCL 145 IASJA: BLACK MUSIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE (Art/US Minority Cultures), John Paul Meyers,

GCL 147 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Justice (Social Science)

GCL 147b IASJS: RACE AND THE CITY (Social Science/US Minority Cultures), Ken Salo,

GCL 147c IASJS: POLICING, CULTURE & INEQUALITY (Social Science/US Minority Cultures), Jeff Martin,

GCL 147d IASJS: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE MEDIA (Social Science/US Minority Cultures), Isabel Molina-Guzmán,

GCL 148 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Justice (Historical Perspectives)

GCL 148 IASJH: THE GLOBAL DIVIDE (Historical Perspectives), Emanuel Rota,

GCL 195 Fictions of Equality (Literature)

GCL 195a Fictions of Equality: MARRIAGE EQUALITY (Literature), Julia Saville,

GCL 195b Fictions of Equality: WHERE IS THE GOOD LIFE? (Literature), Elena Delgado,

Sustainability, Energy & the Environment:

GCL 126 Interdisciplinary Pathways to Environmental Sustainability (Social Science)

GCL 126a IPESS: HUMANS AND ANIMALS (Social Science), Jane Desmond,

GCL 126b IPESS: URBAN SUSTAINABILITY (Social Science), Dustin Allred,

GCL 126c IPESS: THINKING GLOBALLY, ACTING LOCALLY (Social Science), Yimin Wang,

GCL 126d IPESS: FROM FARM TO TABLE (Social Science), Ming Kuo,

GCL 129 Sustainable Design Across the Disciplines (Art)

GCL 129 SDADA: SUSTAINABLE DESIGN PRACTICES IN THE PUBLIC REALM (Art/Non-Western Cultures), Amita Sinha,

GCL 128 Fictions of Sustainability (Literature)

GCL 128a Fictions of Sustainability: FOOD, WATER, ENERGY (Literature), Jamie Jones,

GCL 128b Fictions of Sustainability: FOOD, WATER, ENERGY (Literature), Gillen D’Arcy Wood,