General Education and EMU Core Curriculum

The EMU Core Curriculum (some students call it “gen ed” or “general education” courses) prepares you to put your liberal arts education into action, combining the life of the mind with the heart and hands of a servant.

Core curriculum learning goals

Our core curriculum(formerly called the Global Village Curriculum) combines the following areas and goals:

Christian faith: Students will articulate Christian approaches, explain Anabaptist faith traditions and recognize expressions of these approaches and traditions in contemporary life.
Communication: Students will enhance successful interpersonal collaboration by developing effective communication skills through written, oral, aural, visual, numerical, and technological forms.
Cross-cultural learning: Students will develop a critical awareness of themselves and others in local and global contexts.
Critical thinking: Students will serve and lead in a global context by applying integrative learning, ethical reasoning, and problem-solving in the liberal arts.

See the full curriculum outline in the academic catalog

How are core curriculum courses related?

Each of the courses in the core curriculum informs the other in creating interconnected learning goals. Our interdisciplinary inquiry is informed by our faith; we open ourselves to cross-cultural learning through Christian discipleship; and we effectively express ourselves by respecting others.

The core curriculum emphasizes central values of Christian faith, peace and justice, environmental stewardship, and peacebuilding. These values, in turn, relate broadly to the social and behavioral sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, and humanities and fine arts. Students are active participants in constructing knowledge, evaluating difference, and seeking answers to “big” questions.

Do all students take these courses?

Yep – core curriculum courses are required of all students and cannot be replaced by other courses. That’s why they’re known as “gen ed” or general education!