Live, Serve, and Learn in Urban Slums
The Master of Arts in Transformational Urban Leadership (MATUL) is an entirely field-based program that prepares students to implement spiritual, socioeconomic, political, and environmental change throughout the world. Residence in or near actual slum communities (in Asia, Africa, North America, and South America) enables students to combine living and learning in an integrated approach to leadership development, with a primary focus on improving opportunities for the urban poor.
‘True learning ... alongside the poor’
“As I travel around the world, I have opportunities to meet MATUL students and the ministries with whom they are placed. They are high-caliber students working in dynamic ministries and fascinating neighborhoods. MATUL understands that transformational learning around the complex issues of urban poverty does not occur primarily through lecture and reading. True learning about urban poverty must involve living and ministering alongside the poor. Living and serving in a poor community is the best classroom you will ever experience. The MATUL students I meet and the ministries they are involved with are like double-edged swords, transforming the student as well as the communities in which they are living and working. Regardless of your life’s ultimate mission, spending two years learning from, serving with, and living among the urban poor will give you the depth, sensitivity, and Spirit empowerment you need.”
—Scott A. Bessenecker
Associate Director for Missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Author, The New Friars: the Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor and other works
Learn more about the program and our faculty.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Accreditation
Azusa Pacific University receives accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
University Reputation
Azusa Pacific University held its place in the most prestigious category of U.S.News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges 2013 rankings, placing in Tier One at No. 179 in the National Universities category. In addition, The Princeton Review named APU as 1 of 121 institutions in the 2012 Best Colleges in the West for the seventh consecutive year.
