Doane College has received a $50,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to foster innovative teaching in liberal arts fields at the heart of the College's curriculum.
Thanks to the grant, faculty from different departments will be able to develop new courses that emphasize contemporary links across topics. Working together, their goal is to break down artificial barriers between academic disciplines and bring new relevance to the coursework, thus forming a unique and important foundation for students regardless of their own academic focus. The new courses will be connected in ways that help students from one field interact with students from another, thus forming "learning communities" that approach problem-solving from varied perspectives.
"An ideal education helps students see connections across all disciplines. Our faculty members are excited about finding the common threads that make real learning happen for students," said Jonathan Brand, Doane College's president, in announcing the award. "Besides, interacting with people outside of your specialty is essential in the workplace. The real world is not organized into the categories printed in a college catalog."
Last year's preliminary work to link courses through learning communities was assisted by a grant from the Cooper Foundation in Lincoln.
"Earning support on a national level from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a huge endorsement for our faculty's efforts," said Brand.
The foundation is based in New York.