The Core curriculum at Champlain College merges two distinct approaches to traditional academics—a comprehensive liberal arts program and interdisciplinary teaching and learning. The result is a rich experience that combines academic rigor, self-exploration, and local and global awareness, preparing twenty-first century students to live rich lives and enjoy satisfying careers.

First Year:
Individual and Community (12 Hours)
First-year students take Concepts of Self (fall semester) and Concepts of Community (spring semester). They study in linked learning communities, cohorts of twenty students who share two Core faculty members. Employing the Inquiry Method, these small discussion-based classes emphasize critical thinking skills and reflective learning. Each Concepts course is paired with a Rhetoric course.

Fall Semester

Concepts of the Self
How are contemporary developments in art, literature, psychology, and science challenging our traditional notion of what it means to be human? Students will have the chance to explore how these fields approach questions about humanity and individuality as they begin to build an interdisciplinary perspective on their own lives. They will study texts and artifacts from multiple disciplines as they learn about different ways in which the self is understood, lived, and expressed.

Rhetoric I
Students learn rhetorical strategies to read and write in response to academic texts in various disciplines. Thematically linked to the first Core course, this course teaches students to engage with ideas and work through difficult texts by posing meaningful questions and analyzing both what a text says and how it says it. Students learn to use writing to think deeply and to communicate effectively through summaries, paraphrases, analyses, and critiques.

Spring Semester

Concepts of Community
In the age of instantaneous and open communication, economic globalism, and intercontinental travel, never has the question of the possibilities and limits of human community been more important. What are the practices and institutions that bind us together? What are the structures of communities, and how do these limit and define us as individuals? Exploring such questions through the disciplines of history, philosophy, and economics, students will develop an interdisciplinary perspective on community in the modern world and their place in it.

Rhetoric II
Building on the skills learned in Rhetoric I, this second-semester course teaches students to develop and support opinions based on critical reading and discussion of interesting and diverse texts into effectively written and researched arguments. Students continue to learn strategies for writing essays that are clear, coherent, comprehensive, creative, concise, and correct for a specific audience and purpose.

Second Year:
The Western Tradition (12 Hours)
Through a sequence of four courses, students study the shaping influence of Western thought on science, religion, art and music, and politics.

Fall Semester

COR 210:  SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS
The challenges of the 21st century demand an understanding of the nature and limitations of scientific thinking, the place of science within society, and its relationship to other forms of human thought and expression such as religion, art, and literature.  This course will examine three major transformations of scientific ideas and their social and historical context, and will help students gain a broad understanding of the relationship of scientific ideas to other forms of thought and expression.  Paired with COR 220.

COR 220:  AESTHETIC EXPRESSIONS
What is art?  What is beauty?  How do works of visual art, literature, and music express both traditional and revolutionary ideas?  This course will explore the nature of artistic and literary expression in the Western tradition.  Students will analyze and discuss major accomplishments of Western culture to discover how the arts function both as the expression of cultural ideals and as a force of challenge and transformation.  Paired with COR 210.

Spring Semester

COR 230:  THE SECULAR AND THE SACRED
What does God have to do with anything? Everything, or nothing—both answers have deep roots in the Western tradition. This course is an interdisciplinary examination of the influence of religion and religious institutions on Western society from the earliest roots of the Judeo-Christian tradition through the modern era. The course focuses on the way religion and reactions to religion have shaped personal, political, social, and cultural institutions and practices in the West.  Paired with COR 240.

COR 240:  CAPITALISM AND DEMOCRACY
The 20th century saw the international triumph of the twin pillars of modern Western life: capitalism and democracy. The 21st century problems of globalism, environmental degradation, and terrorism, however, pose unique challenges to these institutions.  This course will study the origins and development of our primary ideals of social organization.  Students will actively engage questions about the value and future of capitalism and democracy while learning about its past.    Is private property a fundamental right?  What are the contemporary threats – internal and external – to democracy?  In what ways do capitalism and democracy succeed and fail to provide for social justice?  Paired with COR 230.

 

Third Year:
Global Themes (12 Hours)
Because international study is transformative and provides lifelong insight into the world in which we live, third-year students will take two courses in common (COR 310 and COR 320) and will also take two courses that explore a particular region.  For the Class of 2011, the regional focus for the two-course sequence will be the Middle East; for the Class of 2012, the regional focus for the two-course sequence will be China.

Students who choose to spend a semester at a Champlain Abroad campus will take two place-based cultural courses in addition to COR 310 and COR 320.  Students who choose to study abroad through a third-party program will be required to choose from a pre-approved list of institutions that have place-based cultural courses that will substitute for the two-course sequence.  They will also take COR 310 and COR 320.

COR 310: GLOBALIZATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Covers the interplay of technology and culture on a global basis. A focus on topics such as genetics, communications, sustainability and other aspects of the changing global landscape will emphasize differing interpretations of science and technology. Paired with COR 320.

COR 320: GLOBALIZATION AND FAITH
Examines systems of belief across the globe, focusing on selected cultural and religious frameworks and how they influence the contemporary global community. Students will study the role of these ideals in shaping contemporary societies, economies, cultures and institutions across a variety of regions. Paired with COR 310.

 

Fourth Year:
The Capstone Experience (5 Hours)
The Senior Capstone is the culmination of a student’s education at Champlain College. Each student, with a faculty advisor, will produce a project that integrates the advanced professional work achieved in the major with the knowledge and experience developed through the interdisciplinary research and introspection gained through the Core courses.