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Academic Program GPA of 2.0 or better on 12 or more credits. Students with less than a 2.00 GPA will remain on provisional status and academic probation and will be required to enroll in the Learning Excellence Program for spring semester and be required to repeat courses as appropriate. The program is coordinated by the Office of Academic Development.
5) Students will learn to synthesize knowledge from the theory of the course and the practical service experience to reflect on their role in civic life.
Experiential Learning
7) Demonstrate commitment to understanding and addressing the challenges facing the Piedmont Triad.
Experiential Learning provides students with a rich array of real-world experiences that enhance academic, life skills, and career development. High Point University offers a comprehensive Experiential Learning program, including service learning, study abroad, study America, domestic and international internships, externships, career counseling, and student-faculty collaborations on research or creative works. These programs are designed to stimulate students to think critically, reflectively, and creatively, while also cultivating their abilities as leaders, innovators, and responsible citizens.
8) Develop students’ understanding of diversity through engagement with people who are different from them.
Service Learning The Service Learning Program engages students in a rigorous interdisciplinary learning experience that promotes their understanding of and commitment to responsible civic leadership. It intentionally aligns and integrates a course’s academic objectives with meaningful community service so the academic goals drive the service and the service enhances the academic goals. Service Learning courses especially emphasize the ethical dimension of the subject matter and the subject’s relevance to the students’ lives. The courses involve experiential opportunities that deepen students’ academic learning while benefiting the community, with the aim of developing greater understanding across cultural, racial, and economic barriers. Such learning experiences prepare students to succeed in a dynamic economy and a diverse global community. The Service Learning Program seeks to fulfill the following broad objectives: 1) Promote a campus-wide ethos of reflective, civic-minded service and ethically responsible leadership. 2) Offer HPU students opportunities to serve with the local community to promote the common good. 3) Develop faculty commitment to the local community by supporting teaching and research that respond to the needs of the community and that utilizes the resources of the local community to return benefits to both faculty research and the community. 4) Share the intellectual and human capital of HPU with the local community through mutually beneficial partnerships.
6) Foster in students the ethical reasoning skills they will need through practices that require first-hand service and leadership in their communities.
The Service Learning Program is central to HPU’s mission “to prepare students to lead lives of significance in complex global communities.” Some education simply cannot be taught in the classroom; it must be caught as students live into their vocations as highly trained professionals who claim their responsibility to help others in the community. Service Learning empowers students with the skills necessary to discern the problems in their community and create effective partnerships to address them. Our students do more than volunteer, more than offer charity — they help create change. Service Learning is where service, leadership, and ethics meet for the common good. For more information about Service Learning, contact Rev. Joseph D. Blosser, Ph.D., Robert G. Culp Jr. Director of Service Learning and Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at jblosser@highpoint.edu. Study Abroad/Study America As globalization continues to blur geographic and cultural boundaries, a new world has begun to emerge. The faculty and staff at High Point University believe that global awareness and intercultural understanding are essential parts of higher education for today’s student. Therefore, the University encourages students to engage in some form of cultural broadening program beyond the campus of the University. A study abroad or study America program may be undertaken by students to satisfy the following broad objectives: 1. To gain first-hand exposure to and experience living in another culture; 2. To become more aware of international issues and concerns; 3. To become more self-reliant and independent; 4. To gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for their own culture and heritage.