General-education college astronomy courses offer instructors both a unique audience and a unique challenge. For many students, such a course may be their first time encountering a standalone astronomy class, and it is also likely one of the last science courses they will take. Thus, in a single semester, primary goals of a general-education course include both imparting knowledge about the Universe and giving students some familiarity with the processes of science. In traditional course environments, students often compartmentalize information into separate “life files” and “course files” rather than integrating information into a coherent framework. The astronomy course created through this project, taught at the University of Arizona in Spring 2019, bridges the gap between those categories, encourages and respects diverse points of view, and empowers students to connect course content with their personal lives and identities. In this talk, I will describe the guiding principles that informed our course design, and I will provide results from my research on the effectiveness of the instructional strategies implemented in the course. Our approach can serve as a model for building inclusivity into other courses and learning environments.