The Whittier Scholars Educational Design

The Educational Design The Educational Design process is the heart of the Whittier Scholars coursework and student success.

Students research, plan, and design their educational paths, ensuring that their educational choices are intentional, individualized, and integrative. The Educational Design process is now hosted digitally in Dashboard, a cloud-based app designed by WSP alumni. Educational Designs, once approved, become the student’s individualized graduation requirements.

The Educational Design includes all the courses a student takes in college (including transfer credits, international credits, breadth courses, majors and minors, etc.). The design is centered around 3-5 educational goals that the student develops and refines throughout their studies. The Educational Design is presented both at the Educational Design Defense meeting and in a personal statement written as a part of the design. It is then reviewed, revised, and finalized at the Portfolio Review meeting before prior to senior year.

All Whittier Scholars Educational Designs integrate each of the following:

  • At least one off-campus experience
  • A long term faculty-sponsored research-based project
  • One or two majors, which may be individualized or catalog
  • Up to two minors, which may be individualized or catalog
  • At least two courses in each of the three college divisions (natural sciences, social sciences, humanities & arts)
  • College writing seminar, or an approved equivalent
  • Math 79 or greater, or an approved equivalent
  • Courses and other learning experiences that provide the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and respect differences among groups of people
  • Competence in the following professional dispositions: initiative, intentionality, collaboration, and innovation/integrative thinking.
  •  At least one methodological course that provides coherence to the curriculum design and grounds a long-term research-based creative, scholarly, or applied project.

Designing an individualized set of graduation requirements requires regular attention, self-reflection, research, and a set of dispositions or habits that promote success in both college and life beyond. Therefore, in the Whititer Scholars Program classes, emphasis is placed on the cultivation of the following dispositions: initiative, intentionality, collaboration skills, and integrative thinking/innovation.