Core Curriculum

A More Well-Rounded Education

The Core Curriculum at Chestnut Hill College provides students with a well-rounded education, accountable skill development, and a wide variety of engaging learning experiences.

Unlike traditional Core requirements at other liberal arts schools which only touch on various disciplines, the Core Curriculum at CHC digs deeper to offer students not only a more complex knowledge base across multiple disciplines, but also accountable skill set development. The combination prepares CHC students for success when facing real-world challenges.

The New Core Curriculum Offers Students:

BROADER EXPOSURE to wider array of disciplines

HEIGHTENED PRACTICAL TRAINING and applicable workforce skill development

DEEPER AWARENESS of the larger world and their capacity to make change in it

A professor leads her class. The students, seated facing her, have their laptops open engaging in the class activity.

The NEW Core structure aligns with and reinforces the College’s interdisciplinary Academic Center Model, integrating the student’s major, their Center’s interdisciplinary focus, and the knowledge and skills that the student gains in the Core. These connections make the CHC degree distinctive, graduating students who are alert to changing interrelationships that characterize the fast-paced 21st century.

Additionally, CHC students receive real-world learning experiences throughout their college curriculum, helping them “connect the dots” of their cross-discipline learning and put their new knowledge into action solving real-word problems happening now in the world.

Core Curriculum Components

The Core Curriculum consists of approximately 39 credits (out of the 120 credits students need to graduate), and layers academic content with skills and mission development, for a well-rounded approach.

The Core Curriculum is Comprised of Study in Four Areas:

DISCOVERY courses prepare students to launch into a college career by familiarizing themselves with the college, college-level work and responsibilities, and reviewing and renewing vital technology and communication skills necessary for the next four years and beyond.

Courses include:

Welcome to CHC
Discovery Seminar
College Writing
Foreign Language and Culture

MISSION courses intentionally highlight certain aspects of the College’s mission. Students are encouraged to not just study the mission, but to live it. Students take one course in each area.

Courses include:

Religious Studies
Global Studies
Ethics

INQUIRY curriculum consists of areas of study intentionally designed to help students recognize and embrace the interdisciplinary nature of the way modern thinkers approach real-world problems. The Inquiry curriculum also includes components of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as all students will take courses that emphasize this core tenet of the College mission.

Students take one course in each of six areas (one of which will be an interdisciplinary team-taught course that incorporates Religious Studies content):

Arts and Creative Expression
Meaning and Interpretation of the Human Experience
Scientific Investigation
Qualitative Analysis/Data Literacy
Analysis of the Social World
Civic Life and Engagement

The REAL-WORLD CONNECTIONS: INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSE is a CHC signature experience. In this course, students contemplate and address a real-world issue from two disciplinary perspectives.

Topics in this course might include general issues like climate change, poverty, war, or combatting disinformation, or more specific issues like the 1619 Project.