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General Education Requirements

The general education requirements at Prescott College are designed to support the undergraduate learning outcomes. Undergraduate students complete or transfer a minimum of 30 credits of general education as per the requirements. General education courses engage students through experiential, relational, justice-centered, and place-based learning processes grounded in Prescott College values such as social justice and environmental literacy, to support professional and skills-based practices such as collaboration and leadership, critical and systems thinking, writing, and quantitative reasoning. General education classes are designed to create a transdisciplinary curriculum for students to develop academic and professional competence through their individualized areas of study, to complete key graduation requirements, and to support student engagement in Prescott College’s professional partnerships, community engagement possibilities, and globally connected learning opportunities. In order to complete the general education requirements at Prescott College, each student’s degree plan must include courses that assess each of four undergraduate learning outcomes; these courses may simultaneously meet requirements within the student’s major. Transfer courses may be used for partial fulfillment of the College’s general education requirements.  Professional advisors review student transcripts to determine if they have fulfilled the quantitative reasoning requirement and/or their lower-division writing, media, and communication requirements. 


The following requirements constitute the general education requirements:

  • First Year Experience (COR20010; 4 credits) or Accelerated Core (COR20001; 2 credits) for first year students and transfer students coming in with less than 30 transfer credits

  • Undergraduate Learning Outcome (ULO) Driven General Education Courses (16 credits)

  • Service Learning (60 hours of service) 

  • Internship (COR47500; 4 or 6 credits) Recommended not required.

  • College-level course meeting Quantitative Reasoning requirements (4 credits)

  • Lower Division Writing, Media, and Communication course (WRW26000 Academic Writing Workshop; 4 credits) or transfer of Freshmen Composition

  • Upper Division Writing, Media, and Communications (WRW46000; 4 credits)


First-Year Experience

  • Fall On-Campus First-Year Students (<30 transfer credits)

The First Year Experience (FYE) course is an experiential, place-based, interdisciplinary course that integrates new students into the Prescott College community and acquaints them with the many pathways for learning at Prescott College. It equips students who have completed fewer than 30 college credits with foundational skills in communication, self-leadership, and systems thinking, that foster the development of cultural and environmental literacy. A contemporary theme will shape course content every time FYE is offered as students engage in self-reflection, community engagement, and critical exploration of their social and natural worlds.


Accelerated Core Curriculum

  • Spring On-Campus First-Year Students (<30 transfer credits)

  • Fall/Spring Online Transfer Students with <30 transfer credits

In Spring Terms, when FYE is not offered, on-campus first-year students (who have completed fewer than 30 transfer credits) may enroll in this course. Online undergraduate students who have completed fewer than 30 transfer credits enroll in this course in their Fall or Spring intake term. The focus of this course is on creating an individualized yet compelling Bachelor’s curriculum, practicing research and library skills, increasing awareness of the social and ecological implications of each student’s major, and learning how to begin their degree plan. This course also supports students’ orientation to the procedures, policies, faculty, and requirements of undergraduate programs. Accelerated Core must be completed in the first term of enrollment; if not, it must be repeated in the second enrollment period. 


Undergraduate-Wide Learning Goals and Outcomes

The Prescott College mission guides the learning goals and learning outcomes for classes designated as satisfying general education requirements. Students will take four courses aligned with Prescott College values such as collaboration and reflection, critical and systems thinking, and care-oriented and humanizing approaches that meet Undergraduate Learning Outcomes (ULOs). Students are advised to choose one of two pathway starting points that guide them to general education courses congruent with their intended degree/major. The pathway starting points are Natural Communities and Social Communities. Undergraduate Learning Outcome categories are the same for both pathways and thus students may meet the ULOs with courses from either or both pathways.


1. Cultural Literacy

Cultural Literacy refers to the abilities to listen and reciprocate, reaching across structures of power with critical awareness, cultural humility, understanding of complex systems, and committed responsiveness. Through globally connected learning and community engagement, students develop competence in this area, which involves both an academic and a personal understanding of the depth of our global interdependence. Analyzing historical roots and current dynamics cultivates respect for and awareness of socially constructed categories of difference. 


Learning Outcomes:

  • Learners can identify differences among various cultural approaches to the study of complex global systems.

  • While identifying systems of power and influence, learners articulate collaborative solutions to local and/or global issues.


Cultural Literacy Course Options:

  • ADV42602 Wilderness & Colonization

  • ENV41600 Climate Studies: The Future of the Planet

  • CRS25000 Class Capitalism, & Colonization

  • HDP21200 Lifespan Development: A Cultural Perspective

  • CRS24300 Maasai Lands & Colonial Legacies


2. Environmental Literacy

Environmental literacy is based on an understanding of natural systems and processes integral to the diversity of life. Competence in this area implies the recognition of unfolding global situations and supports the use of Indigenous and western ways of knowing to imagine and implement solutions. Literacy ultimately fosters healthy, caring, just, and regenerative relationships between human communities and the natural world.  


Learning Outcomes:

  • Learners explain the effects of humans on natural systems.

  • Learners apply understandings of scientific and ecological processes.


Environmental Literacy Course Options: 

  • ENV22725 Concepts of Ecology

  • ENV22850 Environmental Problems: Root Causes, Innovative Solutions

  • HDP42281 Ecopsychology: Choices for a Sustainable World

  • ADV21023 Wilderness Exploration & Landscape Studies - Mountain Geography 

  • CRS2XXXX Globalization and the Global Left


3. Arts and Communication

Arts and communication involves engagement with various mediums including verbal and non-verbal communication, film, literature, language, digital, and the performing arts from diverse perspectives. Competence in this area allows students to consume information critically and develop creative modes of expression, effective interpersonal communication, as well as contemporary technical communication skills.


Learning Outcomes:

  • Learners express an understanding of real-world issues through engagement with various aesthetic pursuits.

  • Learners demonstrate critical and contemporary arts and communication skills.


Arts and Communication Course Options: 

  • AHU43323 Sense of Place

  • CRS21016 Spanish Intensive & Cultural Immersion

  • CRS41016 Spanish Intensive & Cultural Immersion

  • HDP42220 Critical Communications

  • AHU21045 Just Art: Art & Social Change

  • AHU47001 Environmental Humanities


4. Community Engagement  

Community Engagement centers on action-oriented, collaborative work. Competence in this area involves knowledge, application of leadership skills, and the active use of empathy to ethically contribute to, and serve, the self-identified needs of humans within more than human communities. At Prescott College, students will use the skills they gain in general education courses to implement community engagement activities through leadership, professional partnerships, and globally connected learning opportunities across their areas of study. In addition to their academic coursework, students will also engage in discrete service learning and internship opportunities through the Community Engagement requirement.


Learning Outcomes:

  • Learners analyze values and assumptions of self and community through collaborative engagement.

  • Learners are prepared to take ethical social action within a specific community engagement project.


Community Engagement Course Options:

  • ENV41101 Environmental Education in Practice

  • ADV41710 Leading Inclusively

  • ADV41704 Gender Topics in Outdoor Leadership

  • EDU22707 Critical Literacy for Social Justice

  • HDP21171 In Service of a Sane World

  • CRS44010 US/Mexico Border Studies


Service Learning

First year students who begin at Prescott College with less than 30 transfer credits are required to complete 60 hours of service within their four years at Prescott College. Students transferring as second year students (30-59 transfer credits) are required to complete 45 hours of service, and students transferring in as juniors (60-89 transfer credits) are required to complete 30 hours of service. Students transferring in as seniors (90 transfer credits) are not required to complete service hours. 

Students are able to engage with Service Learning through: 

  • Prescott community connections

  • Embedded service opportunities within classes

  • Americorp/Arizona Serve opportunities (stipended positions available for students in Arizona)

  • Opportunities found by the student in their local community 


NOTE: Service Learning will be encouraged in 2025-2026 and a graduation requirement in 2026-2027.


Internships

All undergraduate students are required to complete a minimum 150-hour external professional internship. Internships are offered for 4 credits, which requires 150 hours, or 6 credits, which requires 225 hours. Internships can be paid opportunities. Students are encouraged to select an internship opportunity that is complementary and supportive of their degree/major. All internships must be approved by the faculty adviser. 

Students have the option to complete an Innovative Internship for their Senior Project (pending adviser approval), which can fulfill both the Senior Project requirement as well as the General Education internship requirement. 


NOTE: Students in the Adventure Education major are required to complete 50-75 Leadership Days. These Leadership Days can be completed through an external internship and students are encouraged to do so. 


NOTE: Internship will be encouraged in 2025-2026 and a graduation requirement in 2026-2027.


Quantitative Reasoning 

Quantitative Reasoning, also referred to as the math certification, will usually be completed in the sophomore year, but must be completed prior to the senior year. Students may satisfy the math certification requirement in one of five ways:

  • Successful completion of a quantitative reasoning course at Prescott College. 

    • NOTE: Some majors may require a specific math course, such as Calculus or Statistics. See the graduation requirements for the major for more information. 

  • Successful completion (“C-” or better) of a college-level (college-level Algebra, Statistics, and/or other) mathematics course taken at another regionally accredited college or university. Other college-level quantitative reasoning courses may satisfy the math certification requirement pending a review of course descriptions.

  • A qualifying score of three (3) or better on the Advanced Placement (AP) Exam in Algebra, Statistics, or Calculus.

  • Score 50 or higher on the College Board’s CLEP test in any of the following: Calculus, College Algebra, Statistics, or College Mathematics; the course should be consistent with department requirements. Consult the CLEP website for more information: http://clep.collegeboard.org/exam. Passing CLEP scores also results in transfer credit.


Learning Outcome:

  • Learners will demonstrate quantitative reasoning skills appropriate to their chosen quantitative reasoning course.


Basic College-level Writing Proficiency (LD)

Students may satisfy the lower division (LD) writing, media, and communications requirement by completing WRW26000 Academic Writing Workshop at Prescott College; by transferring in an equivalent course from another accredited institution (with a grade of C- or better); or by achieving a score of 3 or higher in AP English Language. Transfer courses can be reviewed for suitability in meeting stated requirements.  Students may not use this course (or its equivalent transfer) to meet the requirements for a major.


Course Learning Outcomes:

  • Learners will create a thesis statement that answers a meaningful (student curiosity-driven) research question.

  • Learners will use a thesis statement to organize a research paper that includes an introduction, body, and conclusion.

  • Learners will form an argument in a research paper, correctly citing supporting scholarly evidence.

  • Learners will use library and internet resources to locate scholarly sources of evidence and sources of help with APA/MLA citation styles (dependent on the program).

  • Learners will develop strategies for coping with writing anxiety and cultivate accessible resources for help with a variety of questions.

  • Learners will produce persuasive writing that demonstrates an ability to tailor an argument to different audiences with strategic and appropriate rhetorical choices.

  • Learners will produce a first-person narrative that showcases storytelling techniques such as sensory detail and “showing, not telling.”


Advanced College-level Writing and Communication Proficiency (UD) 

Students may satisfy the upper-division proficiency by completing WRW46000 Writing, Media, and Communication at Prescott College or transfer equivalent. Students may not use this course (or its equivalent transfer) to meet the requirements for a major.


Learning Outcomes:

  • Students will analyze media for purpose, message, accuracy, bias, and intended audience.

  • Students will create a persuasive multimedia work or a piece of digital communication for a specific purpose and audience. 

  • Students will apply inquiry, analysis, and synthesis skills to produce an effective project proposal.

  • Students will demonstrate the ability to give and receive thoughtful feedback as part of an iterative revision process.