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Who should take this certificate?
Program of Study
Program Cost
Curriculum
Course Descriptions
Voices of Support
Admission Requirements
Program Overview Offered in partnership with the Integral Institute, the Integral Theory Certificate program at John F. Kennedy University explores the integration of body, mind and spirit in the realms of self, culture, and cosmos. This online certificate is one of the world’s first accredited certificate programs on the Integral Model developed by Ken Wilber. It is the most robust training in Integral Theory available today. The courses, taught by leading Integral scholar-practitioners, deliver a practical and theoretical foundation in all important aspects of the Integral Model. It also serves as the first year of the Masters of Integral Theory program. Students have the option to transfer into the second year of the MA after completing the Certificate. The Certificate can be completed within one year at full-time pace (20-30hrs per week) or over two-years at part-time pace (10-20hrs per week). Learning to Apply Integral Theory Students gain confidence in analyzing any situation, ranging from complex social or organizational problems to personal growth. The goal is to learn to ground all analyses on the Model’s fundamental assumption that all major aspects and contexts of a problem must be taken into consideration. The Integral Theory Certificate Program stimulates direct experience of the value of applying differing perspectives from multiple disciplines to any situation. Learning explorations occur through pioneering case studies and areas of personal and professional relevance to students. Supporting Practical Applications The program has a unique combination of academic and applied investigation which leads to original research and application. Students will have the opportunity to gain a deeply embodied understanding through personal transformation and to make important contributions to the emerging field of Integral Studies. Who should take this certificate?
(Return to top) The Integral Theory Certificate is valuable for those with established expertise and those embarking on a new direction in a wide array of fields. It prepares individuals to engage in their chosen fields with new integrative skills that deliver the change required by our complex world. Students leave the program with the increasingly in-demand ability to re-contextualize their work into a more robust and meaningful framework. Dimensions of the current student community:
- comprised of over 75 students ages 24-64 (avg. age 38)
- 45% women, 55% men
- 30%+ international students
- 80+% of students are working concurrently with the program
- 15 countries over 54 continents represented
- 30%+ have existing graduate degree
- fields of interest include business, leadership, coaching, economics, sustainability, social change, spirituality, ministry, education and more.
(Return to top) The 48-week Integral Theory Certificate program is delivered using a cohort system that ensures a strong student community and provides excellent networking opportunities. Groups of 10 to 24 students from across the continent and the world progress together in rich collaborative environment created by ongoing phone and online interactions and two residential stays. Students can study in the program at either full-time (2-3 courses per quarter, 20-30hrs required per week) or part-time (1-2 courses per quarter, 10-20 hrs required per week) pace. The online delivery provides round-the-clock course access, giving students maximum scheduling flexibility and opportunity to interactively engage the course material with both fellow students and faculty. Classes utilize weekly forum discussions, audio/video lectures, conferences, and an advanced online campus to access all course material. This format is ideal for individuals with full-time careers, families or other personal or professional commitments. Residential Intensives The two required residential meetings occur in the fall and spring at the emerging Integral centers -- Denver, home to the Integral Institute, and the San Francisco Bay area, the location of the JFK University campus. These integrally inspired intensives last three to five days and allow students to deepen relationships among themselves, with faculty and with other leaders in the field. Residential Intensive Dates for 2008-2009:
JFK University Campus, San Francisco Bay Area - Sept. 24-27, 2008 (Mandatory for all students)
Denver, Colorado - end of Mar or early Apr. 2009 (optional) Program Costs
(Return to top) Students should budget $551 per unit for the 10-course 25-unit curriculum for a total of $14,500. Student pay for the courses they register in each quarter. Books costs will be approximately $400 for the year. Students also are responsible for travel and accommodation for the two residential intensives. Curriculum
(Return to top) The ten courses that comprise the 25-unit certificate are divided into two categories: Core Theory and Core Element Courses. A Core Theory course provides the theoretical foundations for the Integral Model while a Core Element course trains students how to apply successfully the Model in personal and professional contexts. The program is designed for students to take a predetermined combination of Core Theory and Core Element courses each quarter as outlined in the chart at right. Core Theory Courses (11 units) Introduction to Integral Theory – The 5 elements (3 units)
Integral Theory – Integral Methodological Pluralism (3 units)
Integral Theory – Applications (3 units)
Integral Life Practice (2 units) Core Elements Courses—Professional Development (14 units) Developmental Psychology (3 units)
Phenomenological Inquiry (2 units)
Multiple Intelligences (2 units)
States of Consciousness (2 units)
Integral Spirituality (2 units)
Types: Enneagram (3 units)
| Fall Q October |
Winter Q January |
Spring Q April |
Summer Q July |
| Year 1 Intro to Integral Theory (3) Dev. Psychology (3) | Integral Theory – IMP (3) Multiple Intelligences (2) Phenomenological Inquiry (2) | Integral Theory – Applications (3) States of Consciousness (2) Integral Spirituality (2) | Integral Life Practice (2) Types: Enneagram (3) |
(Return to top) Developmental Psychology This course explores how the development of the self is conceptualized and perceived within a variety of perspectives including Piaget, Kegan, object relations theory, self-psychology among others. Full spectrum development from pre-personal to personal and transpersonal will be covered. These theories will be expressed within an Integral developmental model. Intro to Integral Theory – The Five Elements This course will be an introduction to the theoretical model that will provide the foundation and structure for the proposed program. It will be the first course in the sequence of three integral theory courses. This course will provide a basic introduction to the central five elements of the theoretical model guiding the program. It will provide the foundation upon which more in-depth understanding of the model will be developed. Integral Theory – Integral Methodological Pluralism This course provides an exploration of the advanced core concepts of Integral Theory and their applications. The material builds on topics covered in the Introduction to Integral Theory course and extends the discussion into the sophisticated underpinnings of the Integral approach focusing on the eight methodological families, post-metaphysics, and perspectives. Integral Theory- Applications This course provides students with an opportunity to explore the Integral approach in action. Through exploring various applications of both the basic and advanced components of the Integral model students gain a working understanding of how to apply the model to their own lives and professions. Integral Life Practice This course focuses on applying the Integral model to an individuals own path of transformation. Using various modules students construct a practice program for their own lives that meets them at their growing edge. Integral Spirituality This course will explore how the Integral model changes our understanding of spirituality. Also, it will situate various religious traditions within an integral context exploring how these traditions can be most effective in today’s complex world. Multiple Intelligences This course will present the research for the various lines of development and help students explore their own capacities (cognitive, interpersonal, moral, somatic) and how to develop these dimensions of themselves. Phenomenological Inquiry This course will use first-person techniques to explore somatic, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of one’s direct awareness. It will draw on various traditions: philosophical, psychological, and religious for encountering one’s interiority. Emphasize will be placed on the experiential correlates to various developmental stages. States of Consciousness This course examines altered states of consciousness, including hypnosis, mediation and dreams, as well as creative, ecstatic and mystical states. Students explore characteristics and scientific implications of these states and research current thinking through personal projects and study. Types: Enneagram The Enneagram will be presented as a model for understanding defense strategies against experiencing and expressing one’s essential self. The course will focus on developmental perspectives and intersubjective dynamics. Voices of Support
(Return to top) The following individuals were approached through email and informed about the creation of online Integral Studies programs being offered at JFKU: Dr. Peter Senge, Senior Lecturer in the Sloan School of Management at MIT and founder of the Society for Organizational Learning, wrote:
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"The proposed JFKU degree programs in Integral Studies, in my opinion, will be a landmark in education for the 21st century. Ken Wilber's Integral Theory is among the most fundamental approaches available today for bringing our inner and outer lives more into balance, both individually and collectively. I find more and more people leading significant institutional innovation build on Integral Theory, and I am convinced this will be a defining feature of organizations that can thrive in our globalizing world." (personal communication, February 16, 2005).
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"This letter is in support of the creation of a Masters Degree in Integral Studies at JFKU. Since January 2003, the University of Notre Dame has included integral theory as an important part of our graduate curricula in the Mendoza College of Business. Specifically, we include a three-credit course on Integral Leadership in both of our Executive MBA Programs. The inclusion of this material has been an outstanding success. Integral Leadership is one of the very top ranked courses in the curriculum as measured by TCE’s (teacher course evaluations), and each year several students write that this course has benefited them more than any other.
In addition, we utilize integral theory in our Values Integration course. For the theory component we rely heavily on the groundbreaking work of Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute.
I strongly support the idea of a Masters in Integral Studies. There is clearly a need and demand for graduate level studies in this area. In the future I would like to consider the establishment of a Masters in Integral Leadership at Notre Dame." (personal communication, February 14, 2005).
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"I can document this need by the dramatic shift in letters from undergraduates inquiring about places for graduate studies. For 20 years I have received such letters asking about transpersonally oriented programs. Now I receive, not letters, but emails, and not queries just about transpersonal but also about integral. In fact interest has grown so much that I now receive about three queries for integral studies for every one I receive for transpersonal studies.
Unfortunately I have to tell these students that their choices are limited. While there are a growing number of integrally oriented university faculty, there is very little in the way of actual integral programs." (personal communication, February 16, 2005).
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"I regard Ken Wilber's work on "integration" as a seminal resource for tackling a genuinely 21st century problem: after a century of impressive (but "siloed") knowledge gains within a host of intellectual disciplines and professions, it is clear that many of our biggest challenges will require us to find ways to work more integratively and interdisciplinaryly, ACROSS different knowledge communities and professions.
It turns out this is a very difficult thing to do, and may require nothing less than a whole new way of thinking. "Integral Studies" and Wilber's concepts can help us advance that work. At Harvard's School of Education we are seeking to strengthen the intellectual foundations of Education as a field in part by taking seriously that the profession itself is intrinsically interdisciplinary. No significant problem in our field can be adequately engaged through one knowledge discipline alone.
Accordingly, we have begun to develop a new core curriculum that includes a course called, "Thinking Like An Educator: Modeling an Integrative Approach." Wilber's 4-quadrants is one of the models we introduce to our students." (personal communication, March 1, 2005).
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"The Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA operates one of the country's highest-ranked doctoral programs in higher education. It is strongly research-based, and places many of its graduates in academic positions at major universities. At UCLA we have made considerable use of Wilber's work, not only in our faculty research and scholarship, but also in our graduate seminars and especially in our students' dissertations.
As a faculty member, I have made extensive use of Wilber's writing and particularly his theoretical framework, not only in several of my graduate seminars but also in two published journal articles and in a recently published book." (personal communication, February 25, 2005)
Finally, Fred Kofman, who has been on faculty at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the University of Notre Dame, and MIT, has enthusiastically endorsed the Integral Model for a graduate program, stating that:
"The Integral Model developed by Ken Wilber has been the most significant material I have come across in my 35 years of academic work. It gave me a cognitive infrastructure to integrate in a single coherent body of knowledge my technical studies in economics, mathematics, systems theory, decision theory, and management information systems, and my humanistic studies in philosophy, psychology, social science and divinity.
As a professor at MIT, Notre Dame, Naropa and several other universities in South America, I have used it countless times to present to my students a holistic perspective. I find it invaluable as the most comprehensive map of reality, a map validated by thousands of academics in practically all recognized fields of knowledge. My only regret has been that when students and colleagues asked me how to study the integral model further, I could only refer them to a rather daunting reading list; and shrug apologetically when they asked me how they could get some help in tackling it.
I am delighted that Ken and his associates are trying to offer a Master's degree in Integral Studies, for this is perhaps the most needed material in academia today. I would be honored to support them in any way I can. Specifically, I would like to put the whole weight of my background and reputation in support of this excellent idea." (personal communication, February 20, 2005).
(Return to top) Enrollment would be available only to students who have an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution. In addition to satisfying the admission requirements of JKFU, admission into the Master of Arts in Integral Theory will require the following:
- Transcripts: Please request official copy of transcripts from every university/college attended to be sent to JFK.
- Academic writing sample (5 to 10 pages, double spaced). Writing sample can also be non-academic, contact the Program Coordinator for more information (See below).
- Two letters of recommendation (Academic, professional, or personal references are acceptable).
- Personal Statement: 5 to 10 page, double-spaced essay that discusses your interest in the program and your use of Integral principles in professional and/or personal contexts.
