These programs provide special academic opportunities for students:
Civic Engagement Project: Supports the incorporation into academic courses and programs of volunteer activities with such groups as community organizations and social service agencies.
Difficult Dialogues: Lectures, courses, and community forums designed to facilitate open, respectful discussion on issues related to race, religion, and ethnicity in Metropolitan Detroit.
First Year Seminars: Small classes on special topics designed exclusively for first-year students. First Year Seminars ease the academic and the social transition to college while engaging students intellectually and fulfilling one of their distribution requirements.
Honors Program: Provides qualified, highly-motivated students an opportunity both to meet basic requirement and to obtain a well-balanced education through small, rigorous classes and extensive interaction with faculty and other students.
Institute for Local Government: The mission of the Institute for Local Government is to improve the capacity of local elected officials to govern effectively and address local problems from a regional perspective.
Retired Persons Scholarship Program: Offers retirees the opportunity to attend classes alongside traditional-aged undergraduates.
SOAR Program: Provides a wide range of support for non-traditionally aged individuals experiencing socioeconomic challenges who wish to begin or resume their post-secondary education. SOAR students receive reduced tuition and text book subsidy in their first year as well as academic and personal support that continues throughout their tenure as UM-Dearborn students.
Women in Learning and Leadership (WILL): Develops the analytical abilities and skills of undergraduate women and promotes their desire to become community leaders.
Writing Program: Offers a range of courses, academic support, and co-curricular activities--including the Campus Writing Centers, the campus Writing Awards competition, and the Composition Placement E/xamination--to undergraduate and graduate students across the university.
The YES Foundation: Three academic programs that develop Southeast Michigan youth into self-sufficient adults.