Passion and Purpose

Faculty with experience in developing curriculum know that it is almost unheard of for students to take the lead in developing a new program and the courses that constitute it. And yet, that is exactly what happened at Chabot College. 

Inspired by the movie “The Passion Project,” 15 Chabot students came together over the course of a year to create curriculum and pedagogy for a suite of courses that constitute the Passion and Purpose Program. The program supports students to: investigate their passions in a supportive and low stakes environment; develop effective student success skills; get involved in campus and community initiatives. 

From the beginning, a central direction the program took was towards issues of sustainability, community gardening, food insecurity, and the environment. This direction was driven not by Passion and Purpose teachers, but by the students enrolled in the program. 

The Passion and Purpose Program offers several lessons for TEA. The first is that, given the latitude and support, students will repay this trust by developing creative and effective initiatives. 

The second lesson is that students are eager to “climatize” curriculum when they have the power to do so. Passion students time and again drove the direction of the program towards issues and solutions centered around the Climate Crisis.