The undergraduate experience
The undergraduate experience at University celebrates the potential and possibility of every student who comes to our program. Echoing the mission statement, our undergraduate program is designed to offer students the achievement of professional success, a role of democratic citizenship in a global environment, and a personal life of meaning and value.
The Program of Student Learning (MPSL) combines sequential and non-sequential program elements with an intensive major area of study in pursuit of student growth and success. Here is a curriculum map of the MPSL including University learning goals (MUG 1, 2, 3): 1 professional success, 2 citizenship in global community, and 3 life of meaning and value. Additional learning goals and teaching guides are indicated in parentheses following the University Goals.
Learning goals
Our mission statement focuses on the future, with an emphasis on preparing students for (1) professional success, (2) community citizenship in a global environment, and (3) a rich life of personal meaning and value. These three “prepares” are our university-wide learning goals.
As student-centered learning outcomes, these goals are expressed in the form of what students are intended to learn overall through their undergraduate experience at University:
- students will prepare for professional success.
- students will actively engage in the responsibilities of citizenship in their communities.
- students will discover and develop a personal life of meaning and value.
The concept of “communities” is intended to be inclusive (local, global, professional, social) and embraces both the idea of active participation as a member of a community as well as the encounter and appropriate interaction with others from diverse communities.
Teaching goals
Our teaching goals are connected to the vision statement and to our three learning goals. Three teaching goals have been widely embraced by the faculty:
- integration of theory and practice,
- student reflection, and
- building an engaged community of diverse learners with opportunities for collaboration.
Our most distinctive teaching goal is to engage students in a “learning by doing” approach to teaching at that emphasizes the integration of theory and practice. Students have to know the theory and how to use it in near-professional performances. We also value student reflection about his or her own learning experiences.
This reflection is guided by the three questions: Who am I? How can I know? and What should I do? These three questions are an essential part of discovering and developing a personal life of meaning and value. Although the approach varies depending on the discipline, faculty build communities of learning with opportunities for engaged collaboration among students, between faculty and students, and with other communities beyond the campus.