Core

In the first-semester CORE experience, students develop a foundation for critical and humane inquiry, consider the application of skills in academic and professional settings, and learn how to take responsibility for their learning. Each seminar focuses on one topic, idea, problem, or concept to introduce a liberal arts education. Students explore such questions as: "Who am I, and what is my responsibility to myself?" "Where do I find reliable information as a student and citizen?" "What do I need to be successful in college and beyond?" As the first experience, students complete a collaborative project to be presented at the Library Showcase event at the end of each Fall semester. 

In the middle CORE experience, students engage with questions of difference, diversity, and their responsibilities to and within local and national communities. Through the critical exploration of cultural and material structures of power, ethical considerations, and the related concepts of egalitarianism, multiculturalism, and sustainability, students consider their role in caring for their immediate human and natural environments by addressing such questions as: What is my responsibility to those around me, and how do I seek out ways to create a more equitable and sustainable society? How do I engage with diverse perspectives, distinguish between publication types and their usage, and understand my own relationship to power? What are my own success and failures to this point, and how do I learn from them to succeed in my final two years of college?  

In the final CORE experience, students contemplate their responsibility to themselves and others as part of the global community. Through in-depth study of international and transnational institutions, policies, cultural practices, and ethical considerations, students study contemporary and historical moments of global interconnectedness from interdisciplinary perspectives. Through engagement with, and in some cases the practice of, global citizenship, students reconsider their role in caring for others and the natural environment, addressing such questions as: What is my responsibility to those whom I may never meet? What are scholarly sources of information about the world and what issues of information sharing do we face? How has my liberal arts education prepared me for my final year of college and beyond?