Why Do I Have to Take GE at Brooks?
Many students have asked this question to me as well as faculty and staff at Brooks Institute: Why do they have to take general education and business courses as part of my Bachelor of Arts degree program? Another frequently asked question: How do GE and business courses help me to become an outstanding photographer, graphic designer, film maker or visual journalist?
Brooks Institute regards general education as an essential, integral part of each of our four undergraduate programs of study. The mission of general education is to expose students to a broadly integrated curriculum focusing on the liberal arts. The GE curriculum encourages and cultivates critical thinking, independent reasoning and ethical responsibility. We strongly believe that, through this comprehensive course of study, successful graduates will attain skills necessary to pursue their career and engage in lifelong learning.
At Brooks Institute, we want to graduate a student who not only has a broad and comprehensive knowledge of all areas of his/her “core” program, we want our students to be able to have strong oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills, be able to analyze problems, master the foundations of information literacy, appreciate diversity and understand the influences of culture, identify and integrate quantitative information into contemporary issues, and practice professionalism based on the standards, competencies, and ethics of the profession.
All of our general education and business instructors have masters degrees in their professional fields. Some have doctorates. All are committed to our general education mission. Most important, all of our instructors are committed to assisting our students become a more “complete” and “balanced” person who not only has a strong mastery of his/her core area but the liberal arts as well.
I am convinced that a major reason the almost 12,000 “Brookies” (alumni) located throughout the world are so accomplished and successful in their career fields is the strong general education foundation they acquired at Brooks – and which supplements and complements their core instruction.
