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General Education Program

Berea College's curriculum includes an interdisciplinary General Education Program in addition to intensive study in a major. As an institution with a liberal arts foundation and outlook, the College has a responsibility to educate the whole person. Berea College's General Education Program addresses Berea's Great Commitments and is designed to help students develop important knowledge, skills, and habits of mind. The program extends from the first year through the senior year and includes, in addition to course work, convocations and other experiences.

The Aims of General Education

Knowledge

The General Education Program will help students understand:

  1. aesthetic, scientific, historical, and interdisciplinary ways of knowing;
  2. religion, particularly Christianity, in its many expressions;
  3. Berea College’ s historical and ongoing commitments to racial (traditionally black and white) and gender equality, as well as to the Appalachian region;
  4. the natural environment and our relationship to it;
  5. the roles of science and technology in the contemporary world;
  6. U.S. and global issues and perspectives.

Skills

The General Education Program will help students develop the abilities to:

  1. read and listen effectively; write and speak effectively, with integrity and style;
  2. think critically and creatively, and reason quantitatively;
  3. develop research strategies and employ appropriate technologies as a means to deepen one’s knowledge and understanding;
  4. work effectively both independently and collaboratively;
  5. resolve conflicts nonviolently.

Habits of Mind

The General Education Program will help students:

  1. deepen their capacities for moral reflection, spiritual development, and responsible action;
  2. develop an openness to and knowledgeable appreciation of human diversity in terms of race, gender, class, religion, sexuality, language, and culture;
  3. cultivate their imagination and ability to discern connections, consider alternatives, and think about topics and issues from multiple perspectives;
  4. think and act in ways that promote peace with justice;
  5. develop habits leading to lifetime health and fitness.

Learning Experiences

The above aims of General Education Program will be achieved through a combination of learning experiences designed to help students become independent learners and thinkers.  Such learning experiences are likely to include:

  1. Discussion and lecture;
  2. Student-initiated learning;
  3. Experiential learning (for example, service-learning, travel, internships, etc.);
  4. Collaborative learning.

General Education Requirements

All Berea College degrees include the following General Education Requirements

  • GSTR 110: Writing Seminar I: Critical Thinking in the Liberal Arts

  • Note: credit for this course cannot be transferred in; however, transfer students who took College Composition while attending a regionally-accredited college or university as a degree-seeking student—and who earned a grade of B or higher in the course—can waive this requirement and take GSTR 210 in their first term of attendance.

  • GSTR 210: Writing Seminar II: Identity and Diversity in the United States (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
  • GSTR 310: Understandings of Christianity (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
  • GSTR 332: Scientific Knowledge and Inquiry  OR the optional alternative of two approved Natural Science courses in two different disciplines, at least one of which must be approved as a Natural Science Laboratory course. To date, the following courses have been approved to meet this alternative (all of them approved to meet a Natural Science Laboratory course)—ANR 110, ANR 130, BIO 100, BIO 101, BIO 110, CHM 101, CHM 113, CHM 131, CHM 134, PHY 111, PHY 127, and PHY 221.
  • GSTR 410: Seminar in Contemporary Global Issues (credit cannot be transferred in or waived)
  • Practical Reasoning Requirement (two approved courses, at least one of which must be firmly grounded in mathematics or statistics)
  • Six Perspectives Areas—Arts; Social Science; Western History; Religion; African Americans', Appalachians', Women's; and International (Language or World Culture option)
  • Lifetime Health and Wellness: WELL 100 and Physical Activity Requirement
  • Active Learning Experience (ALE)
  • Developmental Mathematics Requirement
  • Twenty (20) courses taken outside the major
  • Convocation Requirement

NOTE:  Some Berea College courses can be used to fulfill more than one requirement. When a course is used to satisfy both a General Education requirement and a major requirement (i.e., PSY 100: General Psychology, which meets the General Education Social Science Perspective, as well as the requirement for the Psychology major), the credit is counted only once and in the major discipline. No single course may fulfill more than two General Education requirements and no single transfer course can fulfill more than one General Education requirement. The required General Studies courses (GSTR 110, GSTR 210, GSTR 310, GSTR 332, and GSTR 410) cannot be used to fulfill any additional requirements.