Priority 1: Enhance the distinctiveness of a Kalamazoo College education

Innovative curricular and co-curricular programs will provide our students with an experience in which the elements more clearly cohere and reinforce one another. We have proposed several new programs:

Globally focused core seminars designed to foster integration of study abroad with the on-campus curriculum.
An optional global studies minor obtained by taking the core seminars in combination with a foreign language and study abroad.
Interdisciplinary minors that will allow students to examine a topic of their choosing from multiple disciplinary perspectives.
Additional opportunities for incoming students to experience Kalamazoo College's unique focus on experiential learning. Like Land/Sea, these "bridge" programs will be designed to set the stage and prepare them for their four years.
Guilds, interdisciplinary communities of practice that will bring together alumni, students, faculty and staff who share a common interest in a broadly defined area. These voluntary associations will provide opportunities for networking, professional development, and the collective exploration of issues.

Most notably through the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College's hallmark has long been the thorough integration of experiential learning — study abroad, career exploration, senior independent projects — into a rigorous liberal arts curriculum. The creation of a Center for Experiential Education will allow the College to combine new and existing activities in ways that invite students to discover new and unexpected connections:

Integrate the outstanding work of the Center for International Programs, Center for Career Development and the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service Learning with Guilds and student leadership development to provide a more holistic educational experience for students.
Share K's outstanding work in experiential education more broadly, enhancing our visibility nationally and internationally.
Foster faculty development, pedagogical innovation and scholarship in experiential education.