The Adler School of Professional Psychology's mission and vision emphasizes the critical need to educate and train socially responsible graduates. This commitment builds upon the work of the first community psychologist, Alfred Adler. In addition to providing students with knowledge, skills and attitudes that will enable them to provide traditional psychological services to a wide range of client populations, all degree programs at the School prepare students to be socially responsible practitioners. This preparation includes a grounding in theories and research on the impact on broader structural and systemic factors on human well-being and training in methods designed to impact social policies, address community issues and solve social problems. The faculty of the School has adopted the following definition of a socially responsible graduate.

Socially responsible graduates are those who:

The Adler School is committed to pursuing social responsibility through service to communities, and especially service to disenfranchised and marginalized populations. The School is dedicated to training a diverse population of students and offers opportunities for students to reach out to these groups through internships (accredited by the American Psychological Association) at its on-site clinic, the Dreikurs Psychological Services Center. In the clinic, students gain real-world skills with a variety of diverse and underserved populations.

The Adler School's most recent commitment, the Adler Institute on Social Exclusion, is the first of three planned Adler Institutes for Social Change. Established in October 2005, its purpose is to promote social justice. Its work is research, public education, and community outreach around the issue of social exclusion - a process by which certain individuals and groups are unable to access the resources, entitlements, and powers that are normally available to most others who comprise the society in which they live. In particular, the work of the Institute will focus on items such as public policy and societal structures that may contribute to individual's or group's lack of access to basic rights and resources such as education and health care. Students enrolled in academic programs at the Adler School will be afforded unique opportunities in their education and training through these institutes. These include receiving instruction from institute faculty from disciplines other than psychology, including law, economics, sociology and urban planning. Students may also be able to participate in research, conferences and community projects conducted through these institutes. Finally, students will learn how other professionals approach changing social systems that have an impact on human well-being.

"We are educating students to use psychology to change the world," says Adler School President Raymond E. Crossman, PhD. "Through selecting and preparing students to be socially responsible practitioners - the best and brightest from every different community - we are realizing the vision of Alfred Adler to address the challenges of our world."

Changing the World One Person and One Social Problem at a Time: Training Socially Responsible Practitioners by Frank Gruba-McCallister, Ph.D. Vice President of Academic Affairs