Upside-Down Curriculum
Champlain emphasizes practical, hands-on learning early and often. Our Upside-Down Curriculum gets you into major-specific classes early in your college career allowing you to practice your skills often through multiple internships and cooperative experiences.
Our academic approach is unconventional. In fact, it’s Upside-Down.
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How does the Upside-Down curriculum work?
At Champlain College, you jump right into classes for your major from day one. This is what we call the “Upside-Down” approach.
If you’re interested in Computer Science, you’ll start coding and building software in your very first year. Or if you choose Business Administration, your first semester will include practical courses like business law, marketing, and entrepreneurship. By your second semester, you’ll already be taking management, economics, and international business classes—plus you’ll complete a business internship over the summer.
Every major at Champlain College works this way. When you look through our different majors, you’ll notice that you begin with career-focused courses right away. As you move through your program, your classes become more specialized—some are even similar to what you’d normally find in graduate programs.
This “Upside-Down” approach helps you build real skills for your future career from the start of your college experience.
Benefits of the Upside-Down Curriculum
Intern as early as your first year
Imagine having the skills, knowledge, and credentials to land paid internships that most other students wouldn’t qualify for until after their junior year. By the end of your first year at Champlain, you’ll be ready to take on a professional internship experience.
Why stop at one internship?
Many Champlain students complete multiple internships, and some have even finished as many as eight to ten before graduation. This means you’ll be actively building your résumé with real-world experience while gaining a deeper understanding of your chosen field.
Test-drive your interests
Think of this like a “try before you buy” approach. We hope you’ll love your major, of course! But by diving in right away, you’ll know much sooner if it’s really right for you.
Not sure what you want to study yet? Don’t worry. The Upside-Down Curriculum gives you chances to explore different subjects before making your final decision.
of students over the last six years who completed at least one internship during their time at Champlain College.
students who completed an international internship in 2023-24, that’s nearly 25% of all study abroad experiences.
Since 2013, the Freeman Foundation Grant has financially supported approximately 150 Champlain students interning in Asia.
Having business classes from the beginning of my first year helped me gauge pretty quickly how interested I was in each aspect of the business world and ultimately helped me decide what I was interested in pursuing as a minor.
“Champlain is a pioneer of the Upside-Down Curriculum. Undergraduates can take as many as six classes in their majors during their first year [which] allows them to build a resume of professional skills and credentials and obtain work-related internships after their first year. ”
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Upside-Down Curriculum
Champlain emphasizes practical, hands-on learning early and often. Our Upside-Down Curriculum gets you into major-specific classes early in your college career allowing you to practice your skills often through multiple internships and cooperative experiences.
Core Curriculum
At Champlain, we embrace an unconventional academic model because we know that our job is to give students the skills needed for a career AND for life-long growth.
InSight Program
Success is about more than landing a great job. It's also about living your best life! Get ready to cultivate the skills and knowledge you need to grow and thrive for a lifetime.
Studio Experiences
We take a different approach to education—one that prepares you for work by letting you work on real projects. This is what we call the Studio Experience.
Leahy Center
Taking classes in your major is one thing—doing it in the real world is another. Bridge the gap by working on real projects, challenges, and research in an agency-like setting.
Internships & Fieldwork
Gain real-world experience, develop your professional skills, and build strong industry connections through field placements beginning in your very first year.