We've been building character, and leaders of character since our inception in 1883. The Character and Leadership program on campus is an academic minor. The coursework is designed to give them an understanding of leadership theory, motivation, theories of psychology and sociology that influences the leadership process.
The program is transformational. One of the components of our program is the idea that we are leaders to serve others and so they actually go out into the community and do a service project. The idea behind the Honors program is how can we engage students outside of their majors, and outside of just general education requirements in truly interdisciplinary coursework. One of the things that is central to liberal arts education is this idea of being able to move across disciplines.
We understand how history has influenced the context of our understanding of biology, of sociology. We understand how computer science is influencing communication. We are able to see more life from a systems perspective [and] how everything is interconnected.
There's also a like a global perspective part of it, which is what really forces students to get out of their comfort zone and take a class they would never have taken before and maybe even do something such as studying abroad. That's actually how I got my foot in the door. Last fall, I studied abroad with the program, "Semester at Sea." I went to 14 different countries in four months. I was able to take classes that mattered for like my actual degree in education. There's a lot of different study abroad opportunities, I would highly recommend it.
