On behalf of the faculty, administration and staff, welcome to the Monmouth College Web site. I invite you to investigate all we have to offer and, as you will quickly learn, there are many ways to receive any help or support you might need.
That is much like our message to our current students, who receive guidance from some of the top scholars in their fields. Monmouth’s faculty is committed to providing excellent undergraduate instruction. They set high standards, and they help their students reach them. Students are encouraged to turn to their instructors and academic advisers for assistance and guidance; we are proud of our commitment to each individual student.
Students are encouraged to find mentors on campus and to make friends amongst the faculty. As Richard Light notes in his excellent book, Making the Most of College, if students make a significant connection with at least one faculty member each semester, they are certain to be more engaged in their learning and more likely to do well academically. We also encourage our students to take advantage of opportunities to study abroad, to engage in independent research, to pursue internships and collaborative research projects, to get involved in community-based learning, and to work with their academic advisors so that they make good plans well in advance.
Monmouth College is a vibrant educational community. Our students find many opportunities for study, reflection, personal and intellectual growth, and participation in campus life. Monmouth prepares its students well for a lifetime of learning and leadership. Our liberal arts curriculum offers many opportunities for focus, concentration, variety, lively classroom discussion, group projects, lab work, field work, and collaborative research with faculty. It’s true that the pace of study is intense at Monmouth, but the payoff is an educational experience that will help shape our students for the rest of their lives.
I am very proud to say that we celebrate and reward our students’ intellectual engagement in their own education. Monmouth provides many opportunities for students to explore ideas rigorously and creatively. It is our philosophy that college students are fundamentally responsible for advancing their own education – making choices, meeting deadlines, challenging themselves to grow continuously and to never be satisfied with what they know at the moment.
While at Monmouth, students engage in academic pursuits that take them to places they never imagined, opening doors they did not know existed. Yeats once said, “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” Our highest commitment is to the cultivation of our students’ creative, informed and ethically-oriented curiosity. We hope to set them on a path of learning they will pursue throughout their adult lives.