Lead and Influence Foundational Education (LIFE)
LIFE--Lead and Influence Foundational Education
The core curriculum is the required program of courses for all undergraduate students at St. °µÍø½ûÇø. The LIFE core curriculum reflects a commitment to St. Kate’s mission to educate women to lead and influence, as well as its vision to be respected globally for educating women who transform the world. This mission, rooted in the mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph, is based on three core principles: women, Catholic, and liberal arts.
The LIFE core curriculum provides all students the opportunity to learn from a curriculum that recognizes women’s leadership and builds on this truth: when women do well, the world does well.
LIFE Objectives
Consistent with our mission, vision, and principles, the LIFE core curriculum supports students’ development toward these four objectives:
JUSTICE:
Dismantling systemic racism and intersecting oppressions to build a more just world.
KNOWLEDGE:
Learning about self and a complex world.
SKILLS:
Developing the skills to confront the issues of our time.
LEADERSHIP:
Preparing to lead in a diverse complex world.
LIFE Outcomes
By completing the LIFE core curriculum, a student will demonstrate the ability to perform these four learning outcomes:
- Apply an understanding of personal mission, social justice, ethical responsibility, and cultural fluency to the exercise of effective leadership
- Apply the concepts and methods of the arts, humanities, social sciences, and STEM to identify and solve problems
- Apply the skills of research and critical analysis to the ideas, information, and experiences needed to understand and solve problems
- Listen and effectively communicate ideas to expert and non-expert audiences.
LIFE Core Courses
While our liberal arts and social justice oriented curriculum is woven throughout our programs we include two transformative courses as part of our core curriculum.
The Reflective Woman is a discussion-based course intended to develop knowledge, values and skills in critical and creative inquiry, effective communication and an understanding of diversity. As the title implies, The Reflective Woman uses a variety of approaches uniquely responsive to learning styles of women. In its three units, the course explores identity development within social contexts, different approaches to truth and evidence, and ways to work toward community and justice. Offered in the College for Women and the College for Adults.
Global Search for Justice is a capstone liberal arts seminar examining in depth the conditions of justice experienced by a people or peoples outside of European/North American majority culture. Several versions of Global Search for Justice are offered each term, each focusing on a different aspect of justice. Recent sections have been: The Immigrant Experience, Environmental Justice, Women and Work, Women’s Health Issues, Voices of Dissent, and Community and Change. Offered in the College for Women and the College for Adults.