Pacific Lutheran University
At
PLU you will be challenged to achieve at the peak of your ability,
given support to meet that challenge and, as a result, find success
both in college and in your chosen career.
Challenge means rigorous academic classes that are small and taught
by professors, not assistants. A PLU education means you receive
individual attention – challenged to explore beyond the textbooks, to
seek life’s purpose.
With 3,600 students PLU offers more classes, more majors and more
opportunities than most liberal arts colleges. PLU provides the type of
support that can only come from a close-knit community. Professors are
mentors who will encourage you to consider new ways of thinking, to
take risks and grow. The result is PLU graduates are well equipped for
the working world.
But success is more than a career. We will provide you the tools to
excel in life – regardless of what the future holds. You will be
prepared to make a difference in the world. And that is what’s truly
important. It’s a special kind of success – a success that is defined
beyond the bottom line.
Challenge. Support. Success. They are the PLU experience. It’s all
made possible by the people in our community – faculty, students, staff
and alumni – they’re people just like you.
Your First Year
Academically it’s not going to be easy. You’ll find that some of your
courses are more difficult than you imagined. But from the moment you
arrive on campus, PLU has a special support system in place to make
certain you have every chance to succeed. We call it the First-Year
Experience. It’s a year-long program that helps build a strong
foundation for your college years – and the years beyond.
The First-Year Experience Program consists of courses, seminars,
excursions and retreats that will help you make the transition to
college-level study. The two main required classes are the Writing
Seminar and the First-Year Inquiry Seminar.
The program is structured to provide a nurturing, supportive
learning environment to help students adjust to the rigors of college
and find direction in life. And, as is always the case at PLU, the
classes are small, providing maximum interaction with professors and
classmates.
The First-Year Writing Seminars are focused on compelling themes –
such as “Dreams,” “Vanished Peoples and Lost Civilizations” and
“Sustainability: Balancing Self, Community, Environment.” The Inquiry
Seminars will help you transfer the skills you’ve developed into a
specific academic discipline, such as history, chemistry or
communication.
Most universities don’t place this much emphasis on educating the
whole student. That’s just one of the many ways PLU is different – we
know that it is not enough to train you for a job, we want to prepare
you for life.
PLU wins prestigious award for international efforts
March 10, 2009
Pacific
Lutheran University has received the 2009 Senator Paul Simon Award for
Campus Internationalization, a prestigious award that honors
outstanding efforts on and off campus to engage the world and the
international community. PLU is the first and only private college in
the West to have received this honor.
On Tuesday,
NASFA: Association of International Educators
announced the recipients of the award, which aside from PLU, included
four other colleges and universities. All five will be featured in the
NAFSA report
Internationalizing the Campus 2009: Profiles of the Success at Colleges and Universities, which will be published this fall. The awardees will be recognized at a May 29 ceremony in Los Angeles.
“For me, it’s a significant validation of the work that people have
been doing on campus for a long time,” said Professor Neal Sobania,
executive director of the
Wang Center for International Programs. “And that’s to increasingly make PLU a globally-focused university.”
In nominating the university, Sobania noted the focus on global
scholarship began more than 30 years ago, when PLU became one of the
first universities to establish a Global Studies Program in 1977. Now,
more than 40 percent of the students participate in at least one
study-abroad program before they graduate. This compares to the
national average of 3 percent, and puts PLU among the top comprehensive
masters-level universities in the country with that percentage of
students studying abroad. When students involved in near-campus or
in-state J-term programs are included in this number, the percentage
jumps to more than 50 percent, Sobania noted.
In general, “PLU has made a conscious decision to talk about
“study away” rather than “study abroad,” Sobania noted in his report to
NAFSA. “We do so because South Puget Sound is so richly diverse that
one does not need to travel more than a few blocks to have a
cross-cultural experience.”
PLU also offers “Gateway” semester abroad programs that
include study in Sichuan University in China, an advanced-level Spanish
language program in Oaxaca, Mexico as well as programs in Norway,
Namibia and Trinidad-Tobago.
The gate swings both ways, he noted. About 235 students
representing 24 countries study on campus and international scholars
are always present. Campus groups focus on international issues, such
as the Invisible Children Club, which looks at issues facing children
in Uganda. And The Mast, the student newspaper, has an international
editor. Every other year, the Wang International Symposium brings major
speakers that focus on pressing international issues.
Most recently, a $2 million endowment was established, he noted, to
help low-income students participate in the study away programs.
Sobania also noted the university’s International Honors Program and
the fact that 35 Fulbright student scholarships have been awarded in
the past decade to PLU scholars, with more than half of those in
research areas.
PLU made history in 2006, by becoming the first United States
university to have students and faculty studying on all seven
continents simultaneously – an achievement repeated in 2008.
“This award confirms a focus and mission we have had for
decades,” said PLU President Loren J. Anderson. “Our university is one
that stresses how small a world we have become, and the necessity to
see and engage the world in thoughtful scholarship and a passion for
service and care.”
Nearly two-thirds of the PLU faculty have lived, taught or conducted
research abroad, or have fluency in another language, or where born
overseas. Faculty have also received Senior Fulbright Scholar Lecturing
Awards in such countries including China, Korea, Estonia, Finland,
Norway and Uganda.
The award is named for the late Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill, who
was a strong supporter of international efforts throughout his life.
NAFSA’s annual Internationalizing the Campus report recognizes
institutions that are leaders in the growing effort across higher
education to better prepare students for a global economy and an
interconnected world. With nearly 10,000 members, NAFSA is the world’s
largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education.
The four other winners in 2009 are Boston University,
Connecticut College, Portland State University and University of
Minnesota, Twin Cities. Past winners in other years include Purdue
University, Michigan State University, Concordia College and Arcadia
University.
