Stages of Development
LIKE YOU, LEARNING GOES THROUGH STAGES.
STAGE ONE: LAUNCHING
Your first-year experience actually begins before your first year - at Towering Traditions, our summer orientation program for incoming students. Once school begins, so does a series of closely connected experiences that support your transition to college. On the academic front are the First-Year Seminar and First-Year Writing in the fall semester and Linked Courses in the spring (see Stage Two). On the co-curricular front are a first-year film series, field trips and speakers tied into these courses. And on the 'adjusting-to-college' front are residential life and convocation programs spotlighting everything from time management and living with roommates to handling personal finances and approaching your professors.
STAGE TWO: INTERSECTING
Connecting your passion to the world's needs is central to a Belmont education. In your BELL Core classes and experiences, you will ask and explore and then answer for yourself the important questions about life and work, values and ethics, knowledge and action. Reaching those answers is essential to a life well-lived, no matter if you have your sights set on becoming a nurse, a production manager, a teacher, a singer, a scientist, a journalist, a minister, an accountant, or any one of the many professions Belmont graduates choose.
STAGE THREE: BROADENING
The intent is to overcome tunnel vision and open your eyes for a look at the 'whole picture' of the 'whole world' that you need to become a 'whole person.'
STAGE FOUR: REFLECTING
This is where it all comes full-circle- where you will take a thoughtful and thorough look back at the individual physical, mental, psychological, social, and spiritual challenges you've had at Belmont. With their impact clearly in your mind, you will then be able to look ahead and understand how these experiences will inform and guide your future.
TYING IT TOGETHER
Students who report participating in a 'culminating learning experience.'
Belmont Seniors 77%
Peer Institution Seniors 55%
