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The Fundamentals
Albright is uniquely well positioned to assume a leadership role among small liberal arts colleges. We base this conclusion on three factors: our strength and experience with an interdisciplinary curriculum, our long-term commitment to our core values, and our commitment to unleash the leadership and community service potential of our students.
The liberal arts education is more relevant than ever to our society and to the global environment. Community and business leaders place high value on the skills of liberal arts graduates and the
abilities that set liberal arts graduates apart as uniquely well-equipped to deal effectively with life situations.
Our students possess the ability to think logically and solve problems, drawing insights unconstrained by the limited boundaries of any one field or discipline.
The Curriculum
Albright's cross-disciplinary curriculum crosses boundaries and academic disciplines and reflects true collaboration between faculty and student. Learning is not limited to a specific subject area but flows across disciplines. Learning occurs outside the classroom, in the community, and in co-curricular programs. Albright's historic strengths in interdisciplinary and collaborative study will allow us to both achieve our defined learning outcomes and to set a standard for learning throughout liberal arts higher education.
Leadership
The theme of leadership serves as a unifying theme throughout the campus and across disciplines as we strive to achieve our strategic goals.
The Student Learning Experience
As a small, values-based liberal arts college, Albright's primary focus remains always on our students, their education, and their success after graduation.
With the opportunity to study across disciplines, our students learn to think critically, communicate effectively, and appreciate the need for service to community. They develop a breadth of perspective and strength of character to influence life situations and to be leaders in life, improving their own lives and the lives of others.
As a leader in interdisciplinary liberal arts education, we understand the importance of integrating the arts and humanities with the sciences, in recognition of the impact of science on all aspects of learning and life. We likewise comprehend the very real investment commitment necessary to bring about such integration.
Learning is accomplished in a uniquely Albright way:
- We cherish classes of small size.
- Our professors distinguish themselves by their commitment to the individual student and by the close, personal, mentoring relationships that develop between the individual professor and student.
- Faculty and students work together in a remarkable community marked by collaboration, discussion, access, and consensus, which produces a dynamic environment and builds teamwork and alliances. The result is that graduates are especially well prepared for the new realities of decision-making in groups, teams and task forces.
- In student/faculty research student and professor collaborate in projects that challenge the mind and broaden the learning experiences of student and professor alike.
- Student/faculty research reaches deeply into our classrooms, extends beyond the boundaries of our campus, and forms the basis for our investment in laboratories & technology.
- We actively foster diversity of ideas, opinion, and life experience in members of the teaching and learning community. Crossing boundaries of nationality, race, and ethnicity is a distinguishing characteristic of Albright campus life. We have sent students to study abroad and embrace students from foreign lands. A full five percent of our student body is international. Eleven percent of our students are students of color. Inclusion in the book, The 100 Best Colleges for African-American Students, is only the most recent recognition of the strides that have been made as a diverse population.
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"There is a new irony in higher education. As professional lives have become more complex and individuals change positions a half-dozen or more times in their careers, the oldest, and in some ways most traditional education…the liberal arts…has become the most modern and the most relevant. Learning how to learn, how to be articulate orally and in writing and learning to think on one's feet are the skills of highest value in the 21st century. These have been the hallmarks of a liberal arts education for years."
A. Lee Fritschler, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education and Vice President & Director, Center for Public Policy Education, Brookings Institution
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"There could be no better way to prepare students for the future than to emphasize leadership as an enhancement to the academic curriculum and thereby contribute to the building of character. Too often I encounter well-educated, intelligent executives void of character. Business decisions, at the senior level, frequently come down to doing the right thing. Sometimes it's even difficult to determine 'the right thing.' To identify leadership as a specific objective, and focus on it, would truly distinguish Albright as a rare institution that provides a good education and produces great leaders, trained to lead."
Murray Dashe '69, Chief Executive Officer, Cost Plus, Inc.
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