The Deep Dive Certificate Program honors Upper School students who are engaged in an intentional, organized, and well-documented arc of immersive learning and focused scholarship. Students create the path from initial interest to successful capstone projects. Upon completion of the program, students receive a certificate celebrating their sustained concentration and thoughtful synthesizing of a broad array of experiences and academic work. The designation is noted on the student’s transcript, providing our students with yet another way of standing out from the crowd. Students may pursue more than one Deep Dive.

The Deep Dive Designations promote an interdisciplinary lens through which students design and experience their education. Deep Dive Certificates are offered in these areas: Sustainability Leadership, Global Leadership, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice, Data-Driven Change, and Multidisciplinary Arts.

Program Framework

While each program area has a different focus, all share a common framework.

Each one has a set of academic requirements. All of these may be met as students fulfill course requirements for graduation.
Students must complete four projects over their junior and senior year from within other courses in their individual academic programs. For instance, a student in Latin American History may focus a research assignment on land use and degradation in the Caribbean as a part of the Deep Dive in Leadership for Sustainability.
The Deep Dives include an off-campus immersion experience. Students may satisfy this part of the program in a variety of ways: through a school-sponsored trip, a service project, an internship, or other means of immersion. For instance, a student interested in Social Entrepreneurship might participate in Ashoka’s Catapult Incubator.
Students must participate in one of Westtown’s many on-campus extra-curricular or co-curricular offerings. A student involved in the Global Leadership Deep Dive might serve as the club head for the International Student organization or the Students of Color Association.
Over their junior and senior years, students will build a portfolio of work. In collaboration with the program director, students will create and complete a Capstone Project that demonstrates authentic action-based learning, ties all of the certificate experiences into a cogent, reflective whole, and connects to Westtown’s Global Competencies.