Academic Programs

Center for Race, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies

The Marquette University Center for Race, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies is an interdisciplinary endeavor that promotes critical academic scholarship on the workings of racial/ethnic identity, the persistence of racism (and other forms of social oppression), and the enduring struggle of Native American and indigenous communities in light of centuries of domination and exclusion. 

Diverse Course Offerings 

See also these Academic Offerings in Diverse Cultures (for students enrolled before Fall 2018).

The University Core of Common Studies is the intellectual heart of a Marquette education, built on our Jesuit tradition and designed for successful life in the 21st century. The core comprises nine knowledge areas essential to a well-educated person, including Diverse Cultures. See the list of courses approved to meet the diverse cultures requirement.

In addition to a range of courses offered by various academic departments, a number of programs have been created with concentrated course work, including:

Educational Opportunity Program

The Educational Opportunity Program is a federally funded academic program that motivates and enables low-income and first-generation students to enter and succeed in higher education. Marquette University offers the Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math Science pre-college programs; Student Support Services, which offers a wide variety of academic and financial assistance throughout college; and the McNair Scholars program to prepare eligible students for graduate school.

Graduate Fellowship for Inclusive Excellence

The Inclusive Excellence Graduate Fellowship Program is designed to provide students from underrepresented, first-generation, and/or disadvantaged circumstances with the opportunity to advance their professional development by being immersed in an office dedicated to making Marquette a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable place. Sponsored by the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, the Fellow is mentored by experienced DEI professionals as they engage in meaningful activities that build their skills, knowledge, and leadership acumen.

Graduate School Diversity Fellowship

The Graduate School has established a limited number of Diversity Fellowships to assist qualified graduate students to attend Marquette. These are merit-based fellowships and are designed to recruit and support students who, through their very presence on campus and their participation in academic and campus life, will enrich the experiences of all faculty, staff and students.

On Your Marq - Valuing and Supporting Neurodiversity 

On Your Marq seeks to support students on the autism spectrum throughout their time at Marquette University using an interdisciplinary approach to foster the development of the whole student. Our mission echoes Marquette University’s mission in the discovery and sharing of knowledge, the fostering of personal and professional excellence, and the development of leadership expressed in service to others, culminating with the goal of gainful and meaningful employment in the students’ desired field.  

Project BEYOND-2 (College of Nursing) 

Project BEYOND-2 seeks to encourage students from diverse groups to pursue a rewarding career in professional nursing. As a nursing student, you will join a community of support at the Marquette University College of Nursing. Faculty, advisers and community leaders will assist you in achieving academic success.

Study Abroad

The Office of International Education works to promote the internationalization of Marquette University by recruiting and advising international students and scholars, developing vibrant partnerships with international institutions, providing innovative study abroad opportunities, and offering dynamic instruction in academic English language skills.

Urban Scholars Program

In 2006, Marquette introduced the Urban Scholars program, which offers up to 45 annual, full-tuition renewable scholarships to high-achieving, low-income students with a history of leadership and service. Rooted in Marquette's tradition of increasing access to higher education, the scholarship program renews our emphasis on being inclusive and modeling a more diverse community.

Residence Hall Living Learning Communities

Marquette offers several special housing options that bring together students with common majors or common interests, both with and without required courses that are a hallmark of the living/learning programs.

Nuestro Hogar Community

Open to freshmen and sophomores who are native or heritage Spanish speakers or upper-level Spanish students, the Spanish Language and Cultures Living Learning Community provides an environment where students are immersed in Spanish and participate in Hispanic cultural events and activities on the Marquette campus and in the surrounding Milwaukee communities.

Umoja: Black Living Learning Community

Umoja means Unity in Swahili, there is no better word to describe the intention of this living learning community. Umoja: Black Living Learning Community (LLC) seeks to create a space for Black students across the diaspora to come together and form a community. Umoja intends to be an inclusive and welcoming environment for all those who value the Black community, culture, and identities and are interested in learning and engaging around these values.  

Engineering Community

Three floors of Eckstein Tower in our newest residence hall are reserved for incoming engineering students and can accommodate approximately 90 students. 

The College of Engineering partners with the Office of Residence Life to provide upper-class academic peer mentoring, academic success workshops and programming to support students in their first year in the College of Engineering. Students are typically enrolled in the similar classes and prove to be helpful to one another academically and socially.

To be a part of this community, select Eckstein Tower as your building preference and Engineering LLC as your preferred room type when you complete your housing preference online.

First-year Honors Community

All freshman honors students have the opportunity to live together in a Living Learning Community.  Often enrolled in the same classes, these students participate in study groups, attend in-hall programs featuring the faculty they meet in the classroom, and sponsor a variety of out-of class events and activities.

The LLC occupies 11 floors in Straz Tower.  Each floor is co-ed and consists of first- and second-year students. Students living in the LLC will move into the hall a day early to attend a first-year Honors Orientation.

To be a part of this community, select Straz Tower as your building preference and Honors LLC as your preferred room type when you complete your housing preference online.

Nursing Community 

One floor in our all-female residence hall is reserved for 30 incoming nursing students who sponsor a variety of social programs with the faculty as well as pre-exam study sessions. Faculty report that these students are generally more engaged with their academic program than those not living on the floor.

To be a part of this community, select Cobeen Hall as your building preference and Nursing LLC as your preferred room type when you complete your housing preference online.

Second-year Honors Community

Only Honors students are eligible to live in the Honors LLC. If you intend to live with a roommate who is not in the honors program, you will need to go through the general housing selection process. Similarly, if you drop the honors program at any point in time, you will be required to move to a different community.

The Honors LLC seeks to build a community of rising scholars and community leaders that fosters intellectual dialogue, academic inquiry, reflection and transformative learning in the Ignatian tradition.

Global Village

In celebration of community and goodwill, the Global Village – started in 2002 by the Office of University Apartments, Office of International Education and International Business Studies – helps international exchange students adapt to life at Marquette.

Four students – two current undergraduates called “ambassadors” and two international exchange students — live together in a two-bedroom, furnished unit in Campus Town West, conveniently located across from campus.

Global Village is a close-knit community that promotes cultural sharing and great opportunities for personal growth. Marquette students wanting to be ambassadors can request to live with a friend who is also an ambassador. You can be in any major, from any background.

You’ll complete a survey and be carefully matched with international students giving similar answers. You and your three roommates split the cost of a Campus Town apartment.

Community Outreach

Campus Ministries Programs

Campus Ministries offers a variety of programs which promote justice on campus, in Milwaukee and across the world.

Center for Community Engagement

Community engagement is an essential part of Marquette’s life as a Catholic, Jesuit institution located in the urban heart of Milwaukee. Housed strategically in the Office of the Provost, the office serves as a central clearinghouse for community engagement activities and promotion of the scholarship of engagement, with a focus on bidirectional, community-based research partnerships.

Center for Community Service

The Center for Community Service engages students in discerning their role in the struggle for a more just society through opportunities to explore diverse forms of service. Students will develop an understanding of community needs and assets, root causes of social justice issues, and their own identity through personal experiences with the greater Milwaukee community. We serve in solidarity, for and with others, to repair the divisions that injure the human community and impede human dignity. We strive to make a meaningful difference in our community, working in close partnership with community agencies and campus partners.

Encuentros Mentor Program

Started in 2017, the Encuentros (“Encounters”) Mentor Program brings together Marquette University students and highly motivated Cristo Rey Jesuit high schoolers who may face challenges on their journey toward college. Through near-peer interactions, participants share their experiences and mentors provide practical support, advice and encouragement to their younger counterparts as they aspire to enroll in and succeed at a post-secondary institution. 

The LAB: Leadership and Brotherhood Young Men of Color Summit

In collaboration with the Milwaukee Public Schools’ Department of Black & Latino Male Achievement (BLMA), Marquette University engages in the communitywide effort to support the leadership development, enhance the academic success, and affirm the cultural identity development and dignity of black, Latino and First Nations male youth of the greater Milwaukee region and southeast Wisconsin. Starting in fall 2018, several hundred young men of color from Milwaukee high schools explore our campus as committed members of the Marquette community extend professional knowledge and resources to complement initiatives and assist these young men in navigating their educational and career aspirations.

Service Learning

Service is one of the four pillars in the university's mission statement. It also holds an important place in the Jesuit credos of cura personalis ("care for the whole person") and "women and men for others." The Service Learning Program, housed within the Office of the Provost as part of the Center for Teaching and Learning, coordinates community-based learning experiences within courses across the curriculum, and seeks to bring campus and community together in partnership to share resources, meet real community needs, and help to educate women and men to become the change agents of tomorrow.

Youth Empowered to Succeed (College of Health Sciences)

Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health, Youth Empowered to Succeed (YES) programs are community-based interventions designed to reduce health disparities and risky behaviors among minority youth across the country. YES is a collaboration between the United Community Center of Milwaukee and Marquette University's Department of Physical Therapy and the Exercise Science program.