Diploma in Indigenous and Inter-religious Studies

About this programme

Increasingly, North American spiritual, pastoral and public leaders are called to work with diverse publics. Through the Inter-religious Studies Program and the Indigenous Studies Program, VST has developed resources for multi-faith literacy. This diploma makes these resources available to lay leaders and others interested in improving civic literacy in the area of cultural and religious diversity. This is a 24-credit hour program. The Diploma may be completed part-time over two or three years but must be completed by the end of the third year. For those who would like to study full-time and complete the program in one year, study must begin in the summer term with the Indigenous Studies Program Summer School, and some course substitutions may be required where courses are only taught in alternating years. All non-Indigenous diploma students who enroll in ISP summer school are required to participate in a 3-hour workshop on Indigenous awareness, normally held on the first Sunday of ISP summer school. There is no additional fee for this workshop. All degree and diploma students are required to complete six hours of non-credit, no-fee research modules in Information Literacy. The modules will engage students in hands-on as well as theoretical work intended to develop knowledgeable, disciplined and critically astute researchers.