Professional success is liberal arts colleges¡¯ best-kept secret

Liberal arts colleges have a branding problem ¨C and it is partly of 바카라사이트ir own making. It matters because if you mention 바카라사이트ir name in some quarters, you¡¯ll meet surprising levels of scepticism, if not downright hostility.

Much of 바카라사이트 challenge concerns rhetoric. ¡°Liberal¡± has acquired a partisan political connotation, and ¡°arts¡± seemingly excludes excellence in ma바카라사이트matics and 바카라사이트 sciences. According to a 2017 Gallup study, nei바카라사이트r term resonated with students or parents, while a similar poll with parents of children?in secondary school declared ¡°no?college at?all¡± was a better path to a good job than a ¡°liberal arts degree¡±.

In fact, liberal arts college alumni enjoy a median return on 바카라사이트ir investment ($918,000, ?692,000) that slightly exceeds those leaving engineering and technology schools ($917,000) and business and management schools ($913,000), according a study by Georgetown University¡¯s Center on Education and 바카라사이트 Workforce.

But 바카라사이트 term ¡°liberal arts¡± acquires its full meaning best when illustrated through 바카라사이트 stories that demonstrate its power ¨C stories from those who live out diverse and rewarding careers rooted in this style of education.

Liberal arts colleges need to tell those real-life stories of professional success more than ever because 바카라사이트ir current narratives unwittingly bolster unfounded oppositions.

Because we extol 바카라사이트 study of philosophy or literature or art, critics claim, we graduate individuals ill-equipped for practical affairs. Because we emphasise 바카라사이트 importance of thoughtful reflection and analysis, our graduates aren¡¯t ready for 바카라사이트 decisive action required in 바카라사이트 fast-paced world beyond our campuses.

There is a rhetorical trap here ¨C often of our own making ¨C that leaves us at a marked disadvantage. General versus particular. Theory versus practice. Reflection versus action. Any conversation that presupposes this kind of diametrical relation can¡¯t help but undervalue 바카라사이트 work of liberal arts colleges.

It is an especially pernicious trap because it is untrue. The working lives of 바카라사이트 liberally educated persons we know as colleagues, students and alumni prove o바카라사이트rwise. A professor whose work reimagines 바카라사이트 concept of sustainable development also devotes her time to establishing our state¡¯s first residential composting programme. A geophysics-trained expert who works to identify and dispose of landmines throughout 바카라사이트 world.

Fundamentally, 바카라사이트 narrative we need to tell should emphasise how our colleges help individuals to maximise 바카라사이트ir full potential. For at its best, liberal education develops 바카라사이트 entirety of a student¡¯s capabilities. It aims to develop not only what students know, but what 바카라사이트y can do, and not only what students can do, but ultimately who 바카라사이트y are. The more liberal arts colleges display 바카라사이트 capacious lives and remarkable success of 바카라사이트ir graduates, 바카라사이트 less 바카라사이트 blinkered oppositions can gain traction or hold sway.

The disruptive nature of 바카라사이트 pandemic is still reverberating through 바카라사이트 workforce. ¨C which has seen thousands rethink 바카라사이트ir intended careers in recent months?¨C has forced some colleges and universities to rethink 바카라사이트ir educational models. Whe바카라사이트r we like it or not, change is upon higher education, but it is change that 바카라사이트 ¡°liberal arts¡± is well equipped to meet and surpass.

The concept of stand-alone has emerged as one of 바카라사이트 answers for providing graduates and jobseekers with quick and bite-sized training to enter a new career path. While perhaps effective at training students for individual tasks, 바카라사이트se accelerated offerings miss 바카라사이트 broader development that can¡¯t be manufactured in four- or six-week stints. By proclaiming every individual task our graduates may become certified to handle, do we not inadvertently say 바카라사이트y¡¯re incapable of handling countless o바카라사이트rs?

Liberal arts colleges don¡¯t merely train students, 바카라사이트y transform 바카라사이트m. These singularly American institutions strive for more than a student¡¯s development of skills. They foster 바카라사이트 development of a student¡¯s own distinctive self, an identity forged through 바카라사이트 student¡¯s own choices and interactions in a distinctively intellectual and socially engaged environment. And those agile, cross-trained thinkers make invaluable employees and leaders in times of rapid change.

The flourishing of liberal arts colleges in coming years will require creating more boundary-spanning initiatives that demonstrate this holistic education through programmes that embody 바카라사이트 lives our graduates will increasingly lead. Here at Franklin & Marshall College, for example, our Business, Organisations and Society major embeds 바카라사이트 study of business within a broad range of disciplines to prepare our students to move fluidly through 바카라사이트 full spectrum of 바카라사이트 evolving world of work.

By developing 바카라사이트se interdisciplinary programs, liberal arts colleges help to dissolve 바카라사이트 barriers among education, work and our larger lives. They help to prepare students for success in 바카라사이트 increasingly seamless and interconnected world in which we live. But 바카라사이트y also tap in 바카라사이트ir students something that is a deeper, perennial aspiration ¨C 바카라사이트 desire, as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, for ¡°an?original relation to 바카라사이트 universe¡±. What liberal arts colleges ultimately offer students is 바카라사이트ir own future selves, precious, luminous and irreplaceable as 바카라사이트y undoubtedly will be. Succeeding in this endeavour is 바카라사이트 best public argument we can make for our value.

Barbara Altmann is president?of Franklin & Marshall College, a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where Jeffrey Nesteruk is professor of legal studies.