Personalizing Your GE PlanYour active involvement in personalizing your overall academic plan is a foundational requirement of the 2007 GE program. It’s your responsibility to make the choices that best let you integrate your GE courses with your major, minor, and larger learning goals. You have a range of academic advising support available to you as you develop your plan. Like the GE program, your personalized academic plan is flexible. You can adjust it as you progress through your undergraduate career. Be sure to meet regularly with your academic advisor, whose primary role is to serve as your mentor as you make decisions about your major, your study abroad and other experiential options, such as internships, and your postgraduate plans. The four GE categories let you develop breadth, make interdisciplinary connections, and pursue your interests. Read about each category and consider ways in which your choices in each strengthen your overall academic plan.
Be sure to read the GE Guidelines to familiarize yourself with the flexible options of the 2007 GE program. Freshman Foundations Program (3 units) Provides students an introduction to university-level critical inquiry, anchored in the cross-disciplinary Freshman Foundations Course and including the summer reading program, academic orientation, and associated co-curricular events. The Freshman Foundations Program is the foundational portion of the GE program.
Over 25 different FFC course topics are offered so that you can begin your studies with a class that lets you explore a possible area of major interest or learn about a new academic area. All FFC sections, regardless of specific topic, engage you in the intellectual life of the academy and give you experience with critical inquiry in discussion and written form. Shared Inquiry Areas (18-19 units)
The term “inquiry areas” refers to the different disciplinary ways of thinking in the arts, social sciences, natural sciences, quantitative studies, humanities, and writing. All Chapman graduates will complete a course in each of these areas. Valuable ways of planning how you’ll complete this part of the GE program include
Review the course offerings in the Inquiry Areas. You’ll see that in most cases you can take a course at the 100, 200, 300, or 400 level. This flexibility enables you to take a course in a given area of inquiry at the point and level that make best academic sense for you.
Inter/Multidisciplinary Cluster (12 units) Provides students an opportunity to explore an area of interest from an inter/multidisciplinary focus: four related courses outside the student’s designated degree program or major. At least two courses in the cluster must be upper division. A student completing a second major or a minor fulfills this requirement. The 2007 GE program encourages students to form contexts for learning. A cluster—a group of content-related courses—enables you to gain depth in an area outside of your major program. Inter/Multidisciplinary Clusters let you study one disciplinary subject in depth or one topic from several disciplinary approaches. The “multidisciplinary” approach lets you develop some expertise in an area outside your major program. The “interdisciplinary” approach lets you study an area or topic from several different disciplinary perspectives. In either case, the effect is breadth of learning as well as depth of knowledge. Note that some cluster courses are also approved in Shared Inquiry categories. You can take a Shared Inquiry course to find out if the topic is one you’d like to pursue as a cluster, minor, major, or second major. If it is, you can choose to apply the course as part of the cluster, minor, or major. You would then complete a new Shared Inquiry course. You can explore new areas of learning and afterwards decide to develop more knowledge in that area without losing the breadth of learning that is a central GE goal. Many clusters are designed to lead into a minor or second major in the subject area, giving you another opportunity to develop an area of knowledge in addition to your primary major. Review the available Inter/Multidisciplinary Clusters, developed by Chapman faculty within and across departments and units, to explore the topics and approaches that interest you. Global Citizen Cluster (12 units)
In this self-chosen cluster, students are encouraged to be active learners in and beyond the classroom. This part of the GE program is flexible in several ways. You can choose a semester-long study abroad program to satisfy the Global Study portion. You can engage in experiential learning related to global issues or to citizenship or community. Or you can choose from a menu of courses in each area. You can use courses in these areas to learn more about a topic, culture, language, or other type of interest. Remember that many courses are approved in more than one GE category, and so you can explore an area of interest in Global Study, for example, and then decide to study it in further depth through an Inter/Multidisciplinary Cluster or through a study abroad program. You may then apply the completed course to a different GE category. Review your course options in each of the Global Citizen categories, visit the Study Abroad web site, and consult the Career Development Center’s Internship Guide for relevant internship opportunities.
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