Certificate Program

Certificate in American Indian Studies

A Cer­tifi­cate in Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies is a way of giv­ing recog­ni­tion to stu­dents who have made a sig­nif­i­cant effort to learn about Amer­i­can Indian cul­ture and the place of Amer­i­can Indi­ans in Amer­i­can soci­ety. Stu­dents receiv­ing a cer­tifi­cate will have the achievement officially recorded via tran­script nota­tion.

What can I do with a certificate in American Indian Studies?

Students of Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies go on to suc­cess­ful careers in admin­is­tra­tion, advis­ing, aca­d­e­mics, advo­cacy, the arts, busi­ness, com­mu­nity out­reach, con­sult­ing, edu­ca­tion, gov­ern­ment, health or health edu­ca­tion, jour­nal­ism, library sci­ence, lit­er­acy pro­gram­ming, lob­by­ing, man­age­ment, pol­i­tics, pub­lish­ing, school coun­sel­ing, social work, research, and many more.

Requirements

1. To receive a cer­tifi­cate in Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies, a stu­dent must con­tact the Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies Advi­sor to fill out the nec­es­sary forms. Com­plete a total of fifteen (15) class­room credit hours of AIS/cross-listed courses approved by the Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies Advisor. Among the fifteen (15) credits must be AIS 100 Introduction to American Indian Studies.
2. Students must receive a minimum GPA of 2.0 in each course to be counted toward a Cer­tifi­cate in Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies. In some spe­cial cir­cum­stances stu­dents may have courses not listed on the AIS list of courses count toward the cred­its required for the Certificate.
3. Addi­tional Require­ments: At least eight (8) of the total classroom cred­it hours (15) must be taken at the Uni­ver­sity of Wisconsin-Madison. Of the total class­room credit hours required, only six (6) cred­its may be taken as Pass/Fail. All other cred­its must be taken for a let­ter grade. The Cer­tifi­cate in Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of Wisconsin-Madison is open to spe­cial stu­dents and under­grad­u­ate stu­dents regard­less of the col­lege of enrollment.

AIS Cer­tifi­cate Advi­sor: Denise Wiyaka
(e) denise.wiyaka@wisc.edu
(p) (608) 263-0633

To learn more about the AIS Cer­tifi­cate, con­tact AIS at ais@letsci.wisc.edu or visit our office at 316 Ingra­ham Hall to speak with a staff member.

Forms

To begin the Cer­tifi­cate Dec­la­ra­tion Process fill out the Cer­tifi­cate Pro­gram Appli­ca­tion form and email it to ais@letsci.wisc.edu. You may also fill out the Spe­cial Cir­cum­stances form, which allows you to list courses that are not AIS affil­i­ated but that relate to Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies. This form must be approved by your Amer­i­can Indian Stud­ies advi­sor to count toward your Cer­tifi­cate in Amer­i­can Indian Studies.