Master of Development Practice

Currently businesses, NGO’s, governmental organizations, and non profits across the world have recognized the need for employees with generalizable skills who can work across teams and in multidisciplinary settings. Auburn's Master of Development Practice (MDP) program trains students to meet this growing societal need and prepares professionals who can work across many fields and bring divergent teams together to develop sustainable solutions to the major issues of the world such as hunger, poverty, global market changes, humanitarian aid, social policy and more. Students complete core coursework across each discipline within the College of Human Sciences (whose underlying mission is to improve the quality of life), as well as engage in immersion experiences both in the state of Alabama and internationally. Currently, there is no MDP program offered in the U.S. focused on the human sciences, design thinking, and both in-country and out-of-country field experience, thus graduates of this program are prepared to work both in the US and abroad to help people and communities improve lives and solve global issues.

Students graduating with the MDP will have job opportunities in major international organizations and companies within the state of Alabama (e.g., Mercedes, Hyundai, Shipt Amazon and Aramark), corporate and private foundations and nonprofit groups (e.g,. Red Cross, Alabama Court Appointed Special Advocates, Alabama Power Foundation, Alabama Possible) as well as civic and community development organizations (e.g., ONE and Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization), and Alabama Extension.

The main learning outcomes for this degree are:

Outcome1:
• Master of Development Practice
  Outcome 2:
• Students will be able to design and execute an independent and comprehensive project in the development field that will prepare them to function effectively in professional careers in this field.
  Outcome 3:
• Students will be able to identify, articulate, and debate the importance of a broad range of issues that have both local and global significance in the human sciences as related to development practice.
  Outcome 4:
• Students will be able to increase their abilities to function effectively in the four domains of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) which are CQ Drive, CQ Knowledge, CQ Strategy, and CQ Action as measured by the empirically validated CQ Test.
  Outcome 5:
• Students will be able to apply design thinking to development interventions in development practice through a systematic design process; students can articulate that process and describe outcomes using an established methodology from the human sciences.

STUDY ABROAD OPPORTUNITIES

O: 334 SPIDLE HALL

P: 334-844-3748

E: Megan Elliott