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Educating for change

How schools are offering paths for personal and social growth.

Undergraduate programs

The New School, New York City

Photo: Grant Hutchinson

Liberal arts education provides students with a framework for understanding the breadth of the modern world and how to go about positively impacting it. History, philosophy, literature, music—all can both illuminate the past and enlighten one’s path into the future. Still, the notion of going out and making a positive change in the world can be ambiguous. These days some undergraduate programs are going a step further to make the idea of change concrete.

The New School in New York City, perhaps best known for its fashion design school, Parsons, aims to inspire its students "to bring actual, positive change into the world." In the case of the Eugene Lang College, that means preparing students for lives of social activism, whether they be political, artistic, academic or otherwise. The college emphasizes both the rigor of a classical education—as Dean Neil Gordan puts it, "I like to tell my students the most radical thing they can do is go into the classroom and read Homer"—and the importance of getting out and learning in the modern world.

The college runs a program in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where students volunteer in an orphanage while learning from a Eugene Lang professor about the history of the Khmer Rouge. Other examples include working with the homeless in New York while studying the economics of homelessness or with local synagogues while studying the history of anti-Semitism. "The tools of literacy, of writing, of communication, of historical awareness, of erudition, all of that is really important," says Gordan. "But that’s the theory; now the question is, What’s the practice? That’s why we put such an emphasis on education through civic engagement."

The School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C., was founded by Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s to encourage students to think beyond the U.S.-Soviet rivalry and become a force for positive change in the world. The college continues to thrive. Each year, 1,500 undergraduates enroll in a school intended to prepare them for a career in international service, whether it be in the public, private or nonprofit sector. All subjects are taught through a multi-disciplinary approach. Virtually every student on campus spends time abroad and has command of at least two languages.

Louis Goodman, the School’s dean, says, "This concept of change is something that’s always been attractive to students that come to our school. The difference is that there are many, many more students who are explicitly interested in what we’re doing each year. I like to call this new generation ‘pragmatic idealists.’ They are people who want to change the world but want to be pragmatic in their approach. It’s our job to show them how." In addition to its offerings at the bachelor’s level, the School of International Service has renowned master’s and doctoral programs.

The United States Institute of Peace works to promote international peace-building and conflict resolution in the U.S. and abroad, particularly in schools. The Institute has partnered with universities in Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq to create safe places for debate that model a peaceful society. At the University of Kabul, the Institute has sponsored Afghanistan’s first international peer review journal. In the U.S., the Institute works with universities and high schools to craft a strategy for teaching peace-building and conflict resolution. A major focus is community colleges, where 48 percent of American undergraduates receive their higher education, and where, thanks to the Institute, peace studies programs are blossoming.

"If you really want to create a culture of peace in this society, and you really want to change people’s attitudes, you should be going to a community college," says David Smith, senior program officer at the Institute’s Education and Training Center. "You shouldn’t just be focusing on people going into law and medicine. Teaching peace to the people going out as construction workers and mechanics and police officers and nurses, that’s how you’re going to change society, and community colleges are picking up on that."

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