The Western Institute of Social Research ("WISeR") Celebrates Its Accreditation on June 15th

BERKELEY, Calif. - May 23, 2024 - PRLog -- Founded in 1975 as a small alternative graduate institute offering personalized degree programs, "WISeR" is now celebrating having achieved a new milestone of being recognized as institutionally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (deac.org).  Both the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) recognize the DEAC as a U.S. institutional accreditor.

"WISeR" has a distinctive mission focusing on social justice, inclusiveness, diversity, and multiculturalism. It offers interactive, distance-learning programs, locally and globally, in the areas of education, community leadership, social change, and psychology (MFT and LPCC). Everyone is invited to join us in this joyous celebration on June 15^th (1812 San Pedro, Berkeley, at WISR's location at Thousand Oaks Baptist Church). There will be a 75-minute program of presentations by civil rights leaders, faculty, alumni, and students at 3:00 pm, followed by food, refreshments and socializing until 6:00pm.

To learn more, go to:  https://sites.google.com/wisr.edu/celebration-2024/

More Information about the Western Institute for Social Research ("WISeR")
The non-profit, progressive Berkeley-based graduate institute, the Western Institute for Social Research (www.wisr.edu ) has just achieved national accreditation by the Distance Education Accreditation Commission (www.deac.org ). WISR grants two Master's degrees and a Doctorate in Education and Social Change, offering distance education in a small-scale institute designed to provide highly personalized education where each student has extensive mentoring from faculty and collaborative opportunities with other students online.

WISR's curriculum is designed especially for those interested in advanced studies in education, social change and justice, community leadership, diversity/inclusiveness and multiculturalism, and for those seeking to meet the academic requirements for the State of California's Marriage and Family Therapy license and for the Licensed Professional Clinical Counseling license.

FACTOIDS:
WISR is also the home of the Center for Child and Family Development, which trains future MFTs and provides free counseling to low-income students in a dozen Bay Area schools.

WISR was founded in 1975 by four young, innovative educators.

In 1980, WISR received a significant boost toward long-term sustainability by being one of 80 institutions out of 2,000 applicants who received a grant from the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education—to do a nationwide  demonstration project on teaching, learning and extending the use of action-research methods throughout the larger community. Although WISR has been California State Approved since April 1977, the road to national accreditation has been a long and arduous one for such a small and extremely innovative institution.