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engage in creative problem solving with empathy and emotion. Let us help them see the connections between science and art. Let us show them that communication is an act of caring and that education is a Mercy mission. Let us help them understand themselves as learners and discover their own values and vision. The most difficult thing for me as an instructor has always been the realization that my students often neither want nor value the same things that I wanted and valued when I was a student. I wanted an education that would give me access to cultural knowledge, and I trusted that a career direction would evolve from that. I wanted to work hard, and I knew that I did not know what to read or where to go. I wanted teachers. I am not sure that my students have ever wanted that. When I first started teaching composition in 1982 I believed that access to literacy was a matter of social justice. I still do. I understood then that I had to prove to my students—many of whom were older than I was— that I could write well so that they could see that I knew something they wanted to learn. At that time I was in Buffalo, N.Y., and many of those students were laid-off steel workers. They understood that improving their communications skills was their ticket out of unemployment. Our students today also want a good job at a living wage. They do not understand as clearly that it is knowledge and skills that will help them succeed. They just know they need a degree. How can I help them see that the degree represents an education? How can I help them see the value of a liberal arts degree or general education requirements? In other words, how can I make Carlow’s mission transparent in the curriculum? The Carlow community is currently engaged in revising our undergraduate curriculum to once again reflect our institutional mission. The goal of this paper is to document a process of curriculum revision that is transparent and grounded in women-centered pedagogical practices, such as sharing power. I raised the question of how we could better connect curriculum with mission at the Carlow Roundtable in order to engage other Mercy institutions in this conversation. The insights that emerged from that engagement will continue to inform our on-going work of revising the Carlow curriculum. Participants in the Roundtable shared a few of the ways each institution’s mission is transparent in the curriculum and other programs on campus, and I want to add their voices to the conversation: • • • • •
Gwynedd-Mercy College has a required service learning course in each major that relates Mercy to the discipline. Mercyhurst College has a vice president for mission integration, ambassadors, a Center for Mercy and Catholic Studies, and a Catholic Studies program. Mount Aloysius College has a Mercy Presidential Scholar’s program. The College of Saint Mary has a program for mothers on campus. In addition to sponsoring the Roundtable, Carlow University makes the mission visible by the presence of a convent on the campus along with gardens dedicated to each of the core values; Carlow recognizes its Mercy heritage through the McDarby Institute and Founders’ Fortnight, which includes Mercy Service Day.
All of our voices together spoke of a shared commitment to making our Mercy heritage visible on our campuses.