Whether wrestling with life’s biggest questions, conducting research shoulder to shoulder with faculty mentors, or learning to lead and innovate ethically, APU students benefit from the transformative power of a Christian liberal arts education. General Education (GE) has long played a key role in APU’s undergraduate curriculum, complementing and enriching students’ majors by exposing them to the methods and insights of a variety of disciplines, from biblical studies and theology, to the humanities and arts, to the sciences and social sciences.
At its best, GE offers students a coherent and compelling journey of formation that clearly reflects an institution’s distinctive mission. At APU, that means a life-changing journey that equips students to discover their higher calling and impact the world for the cause of Christ and His Kingdom. To that end, in January 2024, President Adam Morris, PhD, and Provost Anita Henck, PhD, called upon APU faculty to design a dynamic GE program to meet the needs of new generations of scholars and to bolster our position as a national leader among Christian universities.
GE redesign is a complex endeavor; the last such effort at APU stretched over an eight-year period from 2006-14 and produced modest changes. This past spring, with support from the administration and a lot of prayer, faculty leaders committed to developing a new framework in just four months. We gathered a GE Design Team of faculty, administrators, and a student representative for more than 30 hours of collegial and spirited discussion. President Morris also brought the Design Team together with School of Theology faculty for six hours of interviews with influential pastors and scholars around how best to nurture the spiritual formation of today’s students. And Provost Henck supported our work by bringing on a consultant who had overseen the development of a new GE program at another Christian college. The Design Team studied APU’s inspiring history and mission, as well as many innovative GE curricula at institutions across the country. After 20 hours of listening sessions with various groups of faculty and students and many rounds of drafting, the Design Team presented a new GE framework that was approved in June by a resounding 89 percent of the faculty.
We are excited that the new program, titled The APU Core: Pathways to Flourishing,
will launch in fall 2025. The courses are framed around three concepts: Pursuing Wisdom,
Preparing to Serve, and Living Out God’s Love. Built around eight new courses that
all students will take, the APU Core will enable students to achieve 24 new learning
goals under the categories of worldview and wisdom, character and virtue, calling
and mission, critical and creative thinking, scientific and
quantitative inquiry, and communication and collaboration.
As part of the APU Core, students will complete courses that enable them to declare an 18-unit minor in biblical and theological formation. The
minor will begin with a new Cornerstones first-year seminar anchored in the biblical
narrative and focused on APU’s Four Cornerstones of Christ, Scholarship, Community, and Service. New biblical studies
courses, organized around the themes of creation, covenant, exile, Christ, community,
and redemption, will combine broader exposure to the biblical text with continued
deep dives into key passages. Then, following updated theology and upper-division
Bible courses, a concluding Calling and Character Seminar will help students to integrate
their vocational journey with their biblical, theological, and character formation as they prepare to launch into
life after college.
In a new Visions of the Good Life humanities seminar, students will explore life’s
big questions regarding what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful as they
engage with works from a variety of times, places, cultures, and genres. A new Personal
Wellness course will help students develop the skills and habits they need in order
to incorporate spiritual, emotional, social, physical, academic, and financial wellness
practices into their lives throughout their time in college and beyond. Finally, students
will develop their research skills in an interdisciplinary Seeking Shalom Seminar,
where they will grapple with how to bring healing and restoration in relation to some
of the most pressing
challenges of our time.
In addition to these new courses, the APU Core will continue to feature valuable exploration of the humanities and arts along with preparation in written and oral communication, quantitative reasoning, science and social science, intercultural competence, and language study. Throughout all of these experiences, students will be able to integrate Christian faith with their learning and engage with people and ideas from their own and other cultures with curiosity, humility, respect, and compassion.
Overall, the APU Core will encourage students to come as they are and to encounter the grand story of God’s love and His mission to redeem His world as they are equipped to be salt and light in their careers, communities, churches, and families. We look forward to seeing what God will do in the lives of our students as they embark on a lifetime of learning and service supported by a strong foundation in the liberal arts.