Inclusive Early Childhood Leadership, BI™

About the Program

The Bachelor of Innovation (BI) in Inclusive Early Childhood Leadership is designed to prepare UCCS students to work with and for all children and their families in agencies and organizations serving children and families or to design and launch their own businesses or educational products. This program integrates knowledge, skills, and dispositions to successfully work in diverse teams, manage complex projects and cases, practice the ethics of care, and advocate for healthy outcomes for children and families.

Inclusive early childhood professionals may have the opportunity to work in case management, family service, intervention programs, run their own business, or invent, design, and market curriculum, technology, and applications. Inclusive early childhood educators will have preparation in the areas of inclusive education and care, innovation, business, and marketing and be able to take ideas developed while working with children and enhance them through business planning and implementation. A Bachelor of Innovation will prepare students to take advantage of the many opportunities that they will encounter throughout their careers.

Focus of Study

In this unique program, students collaborate with other innovative and creative thinkers as well as master interdisciplinary problem-solving and team building. Develop your skills as a visionary entrepreneur and organizational manager while becoming a highly effective inclusive early childhood professional. The program focuses on:

transdisciplinary teamwork
leadership
program administration
grant writing
community-based early childhood and family services

Program Requirements

A minimum of 120 hours must be completed with a cumulative CU grade point average of 2.75; at least 45 of these hours must be at the upper-division level (courses numbered 3000-4999).
A minimum GPA of 2.75 or higher must be maintained in upper-division level College of Education courses to be awarded the BI in Inclusive Early Childhood Leadership.
A cumulative CU GPA of 2.75 or above must be maintained at the upper-division level to remain in good academic standing in the program.
Students must complete an IECE Professional Internship course as a student in the College of Education.
All upper-division (3000+level) IECE courses must have a grade of B- or better.

Additional course options may be available for the Humanities and Natural Science requirements. Courses numbered below 1000 do not count towards degree completion.

Program Coursework

	Courses
IECE Foundation Courses 57 Credit Hours	COUN 2000 Introduction to Human Services COUN 3400 Ethics & Values in Human Services COUN 4500 Wellness, Resilience and Emotional Intelligence EDUC 2200 Children’s Literature IECE 1000 Introduction to Inclusive Early Childhood Education IECE 1010 Inclusive Child Development Birth-8 IECE 1500 Diversity and Anti-Bias Practice in IECE IECE 2000 Collaborative Partnerships in Inclusive Early Childhood Education IECE 2100 Social Emotional Learning and Trauma Sensitive Practice IECE 2500 Relationships, Positive Guidance, and Behavior Supports in IECE IECE 3000 Observation and Assessment for Inclusive Early Childhood Education IECE 3010 Early Language Arts and Communication Disorders (Birth-4) IECE 3500 Young Dual Language Learners and Family Literacy IECE 3600 Culturally Responsive Leadership and Practices in IECE IECE 4020 Creating Classroom Communities: Social & Behavioral Supports for Young Children IECE 4060 Inclusive Early Childhood Education Professional Internship
Innovation Core 24 Credit Hours	BLAW 2010 Business and Intellectual Property Law ENTP 1000 Introduction to Entrepreneurship ENTP 4500 Entrepreneurship and Strategy INOV 1010 The Innovation Process INOV 2010 Innovation Team: Analyze and Report INOV 2100 Technical Writing, Proposals, and Presentations INOV 3010 Innovation Team: Research and Execute INOV 4010 Innovation Team: Design and Lead
Cross-Disciplinary Core 15 Credit Hours	BI Business Core BI Creative Communication Core BI Engineering Technology Core BI Globalization Core BI Custom Core
Composition Courses 3 Credit Hours	ENGL 1310 Rhetoric and Writing I PORT 3000 Writing Portfolio Assessment
General Education Courses 21 Credit Hours	Humanities - choose one of the following: HIST 1510 U.S.: Birth of a Nation, 1607-1789 HIST 1520 U.S.: Expansion and Division, 1789-1877 Natural Science: EDUC 2600 Integrated Science I Gateway Program Seminar: GPS 1010 Gateway Program Seminar Quantitative Reasoning Skills: MATH 3010 Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I General Electives: 9 credits of upper-division electives