Connections: Fully integrating your liberal arts education

You know the educational components that will make up your college experience: courses in your major and outside your major, an internship, perhaps study abroad, maybe even a senior capstone project.

Alone, they each present incredible opportunities. But what if you could make connections among them in ways that are meaningful to you? Connections unlocks the power of an integrated education and allows you to orchestrate your experience so that it truly resonates with you, during and after college.

YEAR 1

Start with a first-year seminar and a team of advisers

Your Conn education begins with compelling first-year coursework guided by a team of advisers dedicated to your success: a faculty member, who also happens to be the instructor of your first-year seminar; a staff member familiar with campus resources; current students who have been through the first-year experience; and career advisers. (You'll start incorporating career preparation into your academic experience from day one.)

YEAR 2

Find your path (or Pathway, as we call it!)

These days, every employer expects that you will have a strong background in a college major, but they are also asking for something more—the ability to make connections across fields of study and to think innovatively about problems. These skills are needed to solve the larger real-world issues that are confronting our contemporary society. When you select an Integrative Pathway, you have the opportunity to build on your major by connecting the following components of your education: the coursework in your major, the required coursework outside your major, your study abroad experience, your internship, and your senior capstone. And you'll connect them to a topic of specific importance to you. The Pathway expands what you learn in your major—and provides you with the additional integrative skills to be an effective and creative problem solver. 

Discover your question

As you follow your Pathway, engaging in coursework and material from a variety of disciplines, a question will come into focus: What do you want to explore during your junior and senior years?

OUR CURRENT PATHWAYS

YEAR 3 &
BEYOND

See where your Pathway might lead

This is when you'll tie it all together.

  • Coursework that is meaningful to you, not just a checklist of classes
  • A study abroad experience and/ or funded internship that will help you to explore your Pathway question (Every student is guaranteed funding from Conn for a professional experience or research)
  • Students will present the results of their integrative studies in an all-College symposium to the larger campus community
  • A capacity for integrative thinking and problem-solving that will prepare you for the workplace, graduate/professional school and effective leadership