Mission and Educational Objectives

Mission

Advancing the mission of Messiah College, the School of Graduate Studies educates students for a lifetime of intellectual exploration, ethical leadership and exceptional professional practice within a complex world.

Graduate Learning Outcomes

Messiah College is dedicated to helping students blend faith with learning in service to the world. Messiah College advocates a bold and disciplined exploration of the world and expects its students to both embrace and participate in that endeavor. At the same time, Messiah seeks to instill in its students a sense of intellectual humility, recognizing that even the most learned persons have limited insight and therefore need the insights of others.

The paradigm under which Messiah College’s educational programs are designed is that of liberal education. By raising the right questions, exposing students to multiple perspectives, and encouraging critical thinking, Messiah College seeks to enable its students to respond with maturity to the world’s complexities. In addition to nurturing these intellectual skills, the College encourages its students to apply their knowledge to the needs of the world – as servants, as leaders, as agents of reconciliation.

Messiah College has a historic relationship with the Brethren in Christ Church. Now expressed in a covenant agreement, this heritage informs the College’s programs and activities. The distinctives of this heritage, which is rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan traditions of the Christian faith, include emphases on justice-seeking, peacemaking, reconciliation, evangelism, and service. Accordingly, the College encourages and prepares students to act as servants who extend the gifts of grace and peace to a broken world.

While we realize that learning is a lifelong endeavor, Messiah College expects students completing graduate degrees have made progress toward the fulfillment of the following educational outcomes.

  1. Exhibit mastery of specialized knowledge
  2. Perform scholarly activities informed by professional standards
  3. Demonstrate mastery of competencies required in their field of study
  4. Articulate how Christian faith and principles inform their vocation
  5. Apply ethical principles relevant to their profession
  6. Demonstrate intercultural competence

Principles for the School of Graduate Studies Curriculum

Guiding Educational Assumptions and the Graduate Programming

Graduate programs are not simply a product of the College-Wide Graduate Educational Objectives. There are a number of ways in which the educational content, stipulated by the College-Wide Graduate Educational Objectives, can be configured and delivered. “Guiding Educational Assumptions” – assumptions related to learning and pedagogical theory – determine the form or shape of educational programming. Graduate programming will be formed and delivered within the following four assumptions.

  1. The Importance of Experiential/Contextual Learning

    Graduate programs provide opportunity for direct contact or encounters with the phenomena or subject matter being studied, through facilitated and sequenced experiences, occurring in authentic, real-life settings, and requiring the participant to respond with a balance of action, reflection, and application. Each program is encouraged to integrate service-learning within the curriculum; and augment theoretical reflection with professional experience through practica, Internships, and/or collaborative research.

  2. The Importance of Understanding Multicultural Diversity and Racial Reconciliation

    Graduate programs are designed in a way to help students engage in issues related to racism, racial reconciliation, and multicultural diversity for the purpose of nurturing persons and shaping social structures that embody a spirit of hospitality, justice, and reconciliation. Within the graduate curriculum, both thematic content and pedagogical strategies (e.g. reading, assignments, field trips, guest speakers, etc.) introduce students to a variety of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and global perspectives.

  3. The Importance of Developing Connections between Christian Faith and Learning

    Graduate programs are designed in a way that helps students connect the Christian faith to their discipline of study and professional practice.

  4. The Importance of Active Student Involvement in the Learning Process

    Graduate programs require students to assume some intellectual responsibility for their own learning. Programming is directive enough to shape and give form to the educational experience of students, but students are given opportunities to shape their education within the curricular and under the direction of qualified advisors/mentors. Within each program, students have the opportunity to make curricular choices.