The MAST program recognizes that in a complex and rapidly changing world, leadership itself is taking exciting, new, and “non-traditional” forms. This program is an innovative and rigorous curriculum that fuses leading-edge practices in organizational leadership and design thinking with the spiritual formation our institution has offered for more than 150 years.

Offering a unique opportunity to engage in reflective, morally grounded, and creative conversation across barriers of social difference, the MAST will help in sharpening your own urgency for justice and social transformation in your chosen field. Upon completing the program, you will be equipped to make an immediate difference as a leader in the sectors of business, nonprofit, the arts, the church, or another vocational pursuit.

The MAST degree innovates through cohort experiences of deep pluralism in theological and racial diversity. Similar to innovative leadership labs, the MAST offers a unique opportunity to engage in reflective and creative conversation across barriers of social difference that will help in sharpening your own responses for justice and social transformation.

The social and religious complexities of today’s globalized world demand careful and sustained analysis for transformation geared toward the common good. Effective strategies for social change will need to rely on an interdisciplinary approach that integrates critical thinking and research with innovative methods for community organizing.

Each MAST student works closely with a faculty advisor and a social innovation field work supervisor to devise a course of study leading to an applied project in social transformation. The program prepares students for a wide range of vocational paths, whether in social justice advocacy, non-profit organizational leadership, community organizing and education, or congregational development, including advanced doctoral work in the study of religion.

At the end of your first year of study in the program, you will be awarded a Certificate of Spirituality and Social Change (CSSC). In the first year, the focus of the foundational courses for the CSSC provides a cohort experience in the foundational and required courses, while emphasizing ongoing personal change and social transformation.

The second year’s courses are oriented towards theological and practical formation, equipping students to think critically about socio-political dynamics to reflect constructively on the role played by religion and theological traditions in movements for social change. And the end of this year, you will be awarded the MAST degree.

For further program details, refer to the academic catalog.