What exactly am I doing?

MATUL stands for Master of Arts of Transformational Urban Leadership and it's a graduate program through Azusa Pacific University, a Christian university that is based in Southern California. The degree seems kind of random, right? I thought so too. Random awesome though. I actually first heard about it at the debriefing of a missions trip I had went on last summer. I didn't think much of the program and am pretty sure I threw out the glossy flier I was given pretty soon after receiving it. You can read more about how I ended up doing MATUL in my first post. 

I will be doing the MATUL program for the next 2 years. I have orientation beginning on August 31st and then the program will continue until the end of August 2015 (unless I end up taking a break in between semesters or take longer than expected to write my final thesis). So the program length is similar to that of a typical graduate program.

The MATUL program consists of one semester spent in central Los Angeles and then the rest of the 2 year program is spent overseas living in a slum community at one of a number of sites (I'll be in Manila, Philippines). In MATUL, students will be doing coursework as well as hands on internships where we will take intensive language courses and be working with local communities. The program is entirely field based and is unique as it combines service, ministry, and coursework. Here's a copy and pasted blurb from the website:

Program graduates, as servants among the poor, will utilize their understanding and skills within the fields of international relations, community development and planning, environmental policy, church leadership, non-profit management, global health, or public diplomacy, just to name a few. It is here where their extraordinary grasp of the urban poor condition can guide policy formulation and project development, both in their homelands and internationally.

Here's a screenshot of the website. You can check out more information here!