Pacific Lutheran University Programs
Majors
PLU purposely integrates professional studies with the liberals arts offering programs in the Humanities, Natural Sciences, Arts and Communication, Business, Education and Kinesiology, Nursing, Social Sciences, as well as Interdisciplinary offerings.
General Education
PLU’s General Education Program prepares students for courageous lives: lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership and care – for other people, their communities and the Earth. It is rooted in the classical liberal arts and sciences within the Lutheran education tradition.
International Honors
PLU’s International Honors Program is a rigorous alternative to the General Education program that consists of interdisciplinary courses that explore contemporary issues and their historical foundations through an integrated, multi-national approach.
Global Education
Global Education focuses on building a just, healthy, sustainable and peaceful world, both locally and globally, by strengthening the university’s international programs, coordinating study away offerings and bringing focus to global issues and peacemaking.
Wild Hope
Vocation has a multitude of meanings. At PLU, we recognize that vocation is an embodiment of the course a person’s life takes, and that lives are “wild” things. Adapted from Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day, this name embraces life’s inherent wildness that influences all vocational journeys.
First Year Experience
The First Year Experience Program prepares students for successful participation in Pacific Lutheran University’s distinctive academic and co-curricular culture by promoting critical thought, impassioned inquiry and effective expression in learning communities that are both supportive and challenging.
Explore!
The EXPLORE! Retreat supports PLU’s commitment to an educational environment rich with reflection and dialogue about meaning and purpose in life. The EXPLORE! Retreat is designed to both uplift the university mission and to invite students to consider what experiences they may have at PLU.
Undergraduate Research Symposium
The Undergraduate Research Symposium highlights university-wide research and creative activities of students in a professional setting. Research may emanate from a classroom, laboratory or community-based learning experience, study away or academic internship.