HIGHLIGHTS

New school has a broad community mission The School for Professional and Continuing Studies makes opportunities for nontraditional students, lifelong learners and nonprofits.

Cal Lutheran has launched a school focused on education beyond traditional bachelor’s and graduate degrees. Three years in the planning, the School for Professional and Continuing Studies includes two well-established programs – the Bachelor’s Degree for Professionals and the Center for Nonprofit Leadership – and the brand-new Center for Lifelong Learning.

This spring, the new center is starting a Fifty and Better program for older adults who want to take non-credit classes for the joy of learning. It already offers non-degree opportunities such as continuing education for educators. “Our goal is to provide a continuum of educational experiences for posttraditional students that supports

degree attainment, lifelong learning, professional development, leadership excellence and service to the region,” said the school’s dean, Lisa Buono, MS ’04, EdD ’11, who has directed the Professionals program and served on the university’s faculty since 2004. “We will meet these individuals where they are and provide tailored programs and resources for them.”

The Bachelor’s Degree for Professionals program has been accepting degreeseekers and their previous college credit since 1985. Offered in an accelerated format in Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Woodland Hills, its night classes cater to students who are juggling work and family commitments.

The students served by the Professionals program are the fastest-growing Buono

“We will meet these individuals where they are.”

group of learners nationwide and more diverse than traditional populations. Sixty percent of Cal Lutheran’s Professionals are first-generation collegegoers, compared with 27% of traditional undergraduate students. Sixty-four percent of Professionals students are from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented on college campuses. About 15% are veterans, many are single parents, and some are grandparents. (See Page 14.)

To serve more of these students, Cal Lutheran is exploring additional majors such as healthcare management and scheduling classes at new times and in new formats.

Cal Lutheran’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership will continue to provide practical and affordable professional development classes and institutes to help staff, board members and volunteers sustain and improve their organizations.

Built into the new school’s DNA, said Buono, is the eight-page statement of Lutheran educational principles, “Rooted and Open: The Common Calling of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities,” which affirms that “a rich and living Lutheran intellectual and educational tradition compels member institutions to be open to a wide variety of insights from people with a wide variety of backgrounds.”