At the heart of Elon University's liberal arts education is the general studies program, which dictates the courses and experiences students must participate in prior to graduation.
For incoming students, four core courses are required as part of the program – College Writing, The Global Experience, Contemporary Wellness Issues and General Statistics – each of which sets the tone for the rest of a student's education at Elon, according to Jeffery Coker, director of the program.
While math and writing skills are fundamental to any education, Coker said the selection of the other core classes is significant for college students.
"The health course really is a recognition that our minds are attached to bodies and if you're not taking care of your body, your mind can't thrive either," he said. "Especially for incoming freshmen, everything is changing right as they get to college. It's important to remember and to think deeply about healthy behaviors."
And while each Global course is not identical and the direction of the class often depends on the expertise of the professor, they do share common characteristics. Each must be writing intensive and touch on six common themes.
The general studies curriculum is currently being reevaluated and the incoming class of freshmen is the last before the changes take place in the next academic year. This fall, there will also be three "pod sessions" where many sections of the course meet together for a common lecture.
"The Global Experience immediately tosses out important and challenging interdisciplinary global issues that then set the context for a lot of the things that come later," Coker said.
Along with these first-year core requirements, all students must also complete foreign language classes, experiential learning such as research or an internship, a capstone project senior year and advanced studies outside of their major.
"I think incoming freshmen have to understand the vast majority of jobs they'll have don't exist yet, they literally don't," Coker said. "The majors are important for giving depth in a particular area they want a job or career in. But what's much more important is people having a broad range of thinking abilities."
It is this breadth of knowledge that allows student to adapt to differing conditions and job opportunities over the course of their lives, Coker said.
"We hope that general studies is doing a lot of things," Coker said. "It's helping prepare students for majors and with lifelong skills and abilities they can use throughout their lives. We hope that it is enriching and fulfilling in helping people to see the beauty in the world, in literature and in art."