Why Acadia Community Development?

Small Class Sizes & Award Winning Faculty

The average class size of courses in the Community Development Program are approximately 25-35. Compare that with other places and you will realize you are getting personalized learning where you are an individual, not a number.

Permanent, full-time faculty teach core courses and most electives. You get to know and learn from them whether it is through a course, a group project, or an independent study.

Friendship & Community

The Community Development program is about interactive learning, working together in small groups and community settings. There are approximately 25-30 students each year so along the way you get to know each of them and find friends you want to work, learn and play with. Our students form friendships that last throughout their lives, and join a network of graduates and professionals spread across the continent and the world.

Community-Based Action Learning

Throughout the program students gain practical experience and apply what is learned in the classroom:

  • First Year Experience. Each year, 1st year students in the intro course head off for a 2-day hands-on experience exploring and learning in a local community. We get to know each other better and build strong relationships while considering and applying concepts of community development in a new community.
  • Second Year Facilitation & Applied Research Methods. 2nd year students delve further into honing community developments skills by learning facilitation approaches and research methods, anchored by hands-on learning opportunities within the campus and wider communities.
  • Third Year Program Design Course. In groups, students design and lead community development programs with organizations such as a Town of Kentville, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Aldershot Afterschool Program, and Kings Regional Rehabilitation Centre.
  • Fourth Year Community Development Field Course. In the final term of 4th year, students can choose to complete a three-week Community Development Project locally or internationally. Students work intensively with peers and a faculty member in small groups to apply concepts, knowledge, and skills to a major community project. Recent local projects include: Active Transportation in Kings County, Alternative Energy Futures in Wolfville, Strategic Plan Assessment with Glooscap First Nation, and Youth Engagement in the Town of Windsor. International projects in recent years have included Scotland, Northern India, and Peru.
  • Fourth Year Placements. All Community Development majors in their senior year complete a full-time professional placement (35 hours per week) in an area of their interest in their final winter term. They receive six hours of course credit for successfully completing the placement. See here for past placements.
  • Planet Protectors. Planet Protectors is a community waste management and environmental education program for children which has resulted from a partnership between Valley Waste Resource Management(VWRM) and the Acadia University Department of Community Development.
  • S.M.I.L.E. The Acadia S.M.I.L.E. (Sensory Motor Instructional Leadership Experience) Program is an innovative, academic-based, yet volunteer-driven program that provides persons with varying disabilities a unique physical activity experience in order to improve their total development as individuals.
  • Outdoor Leadership. Outdoor leadership can be experienced in various classes and activities at Acadia. For those looking to focus on Outdoor and Adventure Education some of the KINE Activity Labs will be of interest.

Wolfville & The Annapolis Valley

A basic tenet of our program is that quality of life and recreational are essential. We walk our talk, be it a night on the town, curling for the Christmas social or a trip to the theatre with the student society. Play, connection, and fun are a formal and informal part of what we do.

Here are some of the elements that make Wolfville and the surrounding area special...

  • The Fundy Film Festival screens more repertory films through the Toronto Film Festival distribution system than any other theatre in Canada.
  • Three live theatre venues regularly hosting major concerts, musicals, dramatic theatre, dance, lectures, etc. including a diverse range of local to internationally renowned talent.
  • Just Us!, Canada's first Fair Trade Coffee Roaster and the only Fair-Trade coffee museum on the continent.
  • A bustling local farm market, which is a social and musical centre as well as a place to buy local, sustainable food.
  • Local vineyards with great local and organic wines!