Asbury’s Liberal Arts Curriculum Enriches the Lives of Students
July 25, 2019
As a Christian liberal arts institution, Asbury University equips students to impact the world through its transformative, whole-person education. Academic excellence and spiritual vitality combine to encourage curious minds in a special lifelong pursuit of learning.
In addition to their major coursework, students take a number of Foundations courses. Those pursuing a bachelor’s degree are required to take 124 credits of core classes, while those pursuing an associate’s degree must complete 60 credits.
Foundations focuses on the larger framework of interdisciplinary study and creates space for students to ask the enduring questions about the human condition.
According to Dr. Daniel Strait, associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Foundations goes beyond career preparation and puts the spotlight on whole-person development, which consequently sets graduates apart once they enter the marketplace.
“Career preparation is certainly a big part of it, but we also [focus on] the moral, spiritual and intellectual development of our students,” Strait said. “I would say they’re set apart if they come here and really inhabit our curriculum the way it’s supposed to be inhabited and they really live into the life of the campus and begin to experience all that we have to offer.”
Asbury’s Foundations requirements also include courses in the Old and New Testament, theology and philosophy. These courses serve as a launch pad for students as they wrestle with life’s moral and ethical questions, providing a baseline for further spiritual development.
“They’re set apart as people who have thought a tremendous amount about the moral and ethical life,” Strait said. “They’ve thought a great deal about the intricacies of human culture. They’ve thought a great deal about diversity.”
Asbury’s liberal arts curriculum is so much more than just a set of required classes. It also sparks a unique curiosity in the students who go through it. This impetus for lifelong learning is derived from five key conceptual areas. These include:
- Integrating Christian Faith and Culture
- Discovering Human Thought and Creative Expression
- Engaging Society and Global Responsibility
- Achieving Quantitative and Critical Literacy
- Searching the Natural World and the Environment
Read more about the Foundations conceptual framework.
Through this framework, students take thought-provoking courses in subjects ranging from ethics to music appreciation. Foundations courses work together to nourish the whole person, including classes designed to feed not only the thinker, artist and theologian in each student but also the physical person through human health and exercise classes.
Foundations works in tandem with the University’s mission to equip students, through academic excellence and spiritual vitality, for lifelong learning, leadership and service to the professions, society, the family and the Church, preparing them to engage their cultures and advance the cause of Christ around the world.