Member Spotlight: Culver-Stockton College
“Life is a Journey; the World is our Classroom.” These words inside Henderson Hall at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo., summarize the college’s new 12-3 semester calendar and experiential learning philosophy. With the new calendar, students take 3-4 courses during a 12-week session; that is followed by a three-week session during which students enroll in only one course.
“Our students have always done experiential types of things…for example, internships, research, domestic and foreign travel,” says Dr. David Wilson, vice president for academic affairs, “but our new commitment to an experiential learning approach along with the new semester structure means that we are doing many more of these things than ever before and in new and creative ways. And even though experiential learning happens throughout the 15 weeks of any given semester, the three-week session is particularly suited for a more intense experience. Professors can take an entire class to any place in the world during those weeks since students are enrolled in only one course during that time.
“We’ve made a commitment to these experiential activities for all of our students, not just a chosen few,” Wilson continues. “The energy on campus is palpable; this new program really resonates with current and prospective students, faculty and employers. Experiential learning has a real-world context. It connects the classroom with real life and, in doing so, helps prepare students for careers and for life beyond Culver-Stockton.”
Culver-Stockton College, founded in 1853 by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is only the second college in the United States to offer this new semester structure. And, the 12-3 semester is only one of the innovative ways that the college is striving to set itself apart from other institutions.
The college’s Connected Campus is an online degree completion program that leads to a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Most classes are taught by Culver-Stockton faculty, but the college has joined a consortium of colleges through which students can enroll in additional classes. The college’s entire summer program is online and a proposed MBA program, also to be offered 100 percent online, is being prepared for accreditation.
Earlier this year, the college entered into an agreement with the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences that prepares C-SC students to enter medical school following their junior year. A similar program is offered in partnership with Washington University for occupational therapy students.
Many advances in technology are occurring at Culver-Stockton.
“For example, our Business Division recently launched an iPad initiative in which several classes are being conducted this year where all students use iPads to facilitate their learning,” says Wilson. Other notables include the fact that “we’ve held our tuition constant for three consecutive years, we have a mock trial team and mock courtroom in the lower level of Carl Johann Memorial Library to help prepare students for careers in law and criminal justice, and we are preparing to open a state-of-the-art recording studio in our Performing Arts Center, an enhanced photography studio for our art students and a new greenhouse.
“We challenge and encourage students to ‘Do Something Different’ and we strive to follow that mantra ourselves,” says Wilson.
If your company would like to host an intern or you know of a prospective student, contact Wilson at (573) 288-6000 or visit www.culver.edu.
