Social Sciences

Gain the practical knowledge and tools to make informed financial decisions throughout your life. Beginning with financial goal-setting, you will explore how personal values, consumer behavior, economic conditions, and risk influence financial choices. Through discussions, real-world examples, and practical exercises, you will understand credit, interest rates, inflation, the value of money, investing, stock trading, bonds, and major financial decisions such as purchasing a home or automobile. The course emphasizes both short-term financial decision-making and long-term financial security and includes a class trip to Boston.

This personal finance course builds on foundational financial concepts by focusing on budgeting strategies, spending plans, financial risk management, and investment decision-making. You will learn how to develop effective spending plans, understand how broader economic conditions can affect your personal finances, and use financial tools and strategies to manage risk and build long-term financial security. You will also be introduced to the relationships among economic cycles, monetary policy, leverage, and investment markets. Through practical examples and real-world applications, you’ll explore investment strategies, mutual funds and stock portfolio options, alternative trading markets, and the role of insurance in protecting personal wealth. We’ll also visit Hartford, Connecticut, the insurance capital of the world.

Step into the shoes of a global diplomat in this hands-on, intensive course. Through simulations, crisis scenarios, and workshops, you will develop essential skills in debate, negotiation, and public speaking. You’ll hone your persuasive powers on high-stakes U.N. bodies such as the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, while tackling pressing global issues such as climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons, and human migration. With the guidance of NMH’s global alumni network and local organizations, you will gain insights into international relations, conflict mediation, and brokering agreements under pressure. Whether you’re preparing for your next Model U.N. conference or aiming for a future in global diplomacy, this course will sharpen your leadership and critical-thinking skills. You’lll also have the opportunity to travel to the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Examine historical and contemporary conflicts through political, strategic, ethical, and humanitarian perspectives. Topics will include theories of war, deterrence, escalation, alliances, civil and interstate conflict, the ethics of warfare, diplomacy, peace negotiations, and post-conflict reconstruction. You will also consider the difficult choices leaders face when the pursuit of national security comes into conflict with moral principles or humanitarian concerns. This course will help you think critically about competing perspectives and recognize that war and peace rarely have simple explanations or solutions. Through case studies, simulations, debates, and local field trips, you will emerge from the class ready to analyze conflicts and evaluate competing strategies for preventing, conducting, and ending war.

How does the human mind work, and what drives the way we think, feel, and act? In this engaging introduction to psychology, you will explore the fundamentals of human behavior and the science behind topics such as personality, motivation, and human growth from conception through old age. Through interactive discussions, case studies, and small-group experiments, you will examine topics like conformity, memory, cognitive bias, and social influence, while testing your own powers of observation and analysis. You will apply psychological principles to real-world scenarios, from designing simple experiments to exploring the psychology of teamwork and leadership. You will also meet practitioners in the field to learn about career paths such as counseling, forensic psychology, education, and behavioral research. Whether you are fascinated by the causes and treatments of mental disorders or hope to explore how people make choices, this course will sharpen your understanding of yourself and others — valuable tools for college, career, and life.

Take your understanding of psychology to the next level with an in-depth exploration of the brain and nervous system. In this advanced course, you will learn how neurons communicate, how our senses process the world, and how brain structure affects behavior, learning, and memory, through lab work, projects, and interactive models. You will also meet neuroscientists and psychology professionals who will share insights into emerging research and careers in medicine, cognitive science, and mental health. Hands-on projects and experiments will help you connect theory to practice, from mapping the brain to studying the effects of stress, sleep, and technology on cognition. Whether taken as a stand-alone course or as a continuation of Social, Developmental, and Abnormal, this course will expand your understanding of what it means to think, feel, and be human and prepare you for future study in neuroscience, psychology, and the life sciences.

How does the American criminal justice system function? How does discrimination play a role in the system? This introductory course will provide a broad overview of the criminal justice system, including its history, structure, and processes. You will discuss issues such as racial profiling, privacy rights in the time of AI, mass incarceration, speed of trial, cruel and unusual punishment, and more, while examining the roles of various agencies that seek to maintain public order. Class discussions will center on recent cases and issues, including policy brutality, the death penalty, and sexual assault on college campuses.