Education for Critical Consciousness: Informed Minds and Understanding Hearts
Felician University’s General Education Curricular Commons Program provides a cross-disciplinary Liberal Arts education that extends the learning experience of our students beyond their professional competencies, fostering their reflective awareness as both individuals and integral members of their society, global community, and the natural world. Our program encourages the spiritual, ethical, intellectual, social, and creative growth of the whole person within the Catholic Franciscan tradition. The GECC serves as the basis for the integration of necessary skills required in the 21st century, and preparation for more specialized learning within the majors.
Felician graduates are expected to be attentive in their experiences, intelligent in their understandings, critical in their judgments of what is true, responsible in their decisions, and loving in their actions, all of which serve the University’s goal of changing the world, one life at a time. 'Critical Consciousness' speaks to the need for personal responsibility in constructing a self-awareness and self-understanding that is morally, intellectually, practically, and spiritually sound. 'Informed Minds' addresses the desire we have for our students’ intellectual development in both specialized and broad areas of study, which a General Education Program is expected to help develop and which include: competence in fields of study; oral and written communication; creative, critical, and analytical thinking; technology and information literacy; quantitative and scientific reasoning; theological and moral foundations. We promote 'Understanding Hearts' via our influential Catholic Felician-Franciscan Mission entrusted with shaping the professional and personal lives of our students and our entire Felician community.