Sustain Regional Leadership in the Community Professions
Enhance & Deepen the Undergraduate Experience
Create Purposeful Community Partnerships
Sustain Regional Leadership in the Community Professions
”Throughout planning, we concentrated on how to accentuate the impact of the College's professional degree programs while strengthening the integration of the liberal arts. This has led to a series of exciting academic program developments.
Five Strategic Themes
A Legacy of Leadership in the
COMMUNITY PROFESSIONS
From their first day on campus, Anna Maria students perform as professionals-in-training, integrating the knowledge, skills, ethical development, and experience to become leaders who are passionate about serving their communities and acting as catalysts for positive change.
Our Something Greater Strategic Plan strengthens our commitment to connecting liberal and professional learning so that our graduates gain the literacies and competencies to excel in their professions and communities. Significant investments in program development will extend the College’s impact by keeping our academic majors current with professional requirements; adding new academic degrees and majors where there are demonstrated needs; and expanding our online, continuing education, and skills development programs with our community partners.
Since our founding in 1946, our College has sustained a mission of rigorously preparing students for professional roles in demand in Greater Worcester, New England, and beyond, while grounding them in the liberal arts and cultivating in them personal moral responsibility, service to others, and spiritual awareness. Our 28 undergraduate majors, 13 graduate and online degree programs, and 22 certificate programs develop expertise in business, nursing and health sciences, education, community services, human development, communications, and music and art education and therapy. Internships and clinical and experiential learning deepen knowledge through practice.
Continuous Academic Program Renewal
Design and carry out a systematic approach to academic program review and enhancement to ensure that the College’s offerings are of the highest academic quality and professional relevance. Target strategic investments to continually build program capabilities, resources, and enrollments.
Contemporary Literacies Across the Undergraduate Experience
Establish a set of literacies in such areas as creativity, critical thinking, communication, information fluency, cultural and global dynamics, and morality and ethics, which contribute to professional success and purposeful living. Design and teach these literacies across the core curriculum, academic majors, co-curricular offerings, student and residential life, and experiential learning. Measure learning outcomes to ensure mastery of these literacies.
Expand Degree Offerings in Areas of Professional Strength
Evaluate professional disciplines where the College has established strengths in faculty, curriculum, reputation, technology, and other capabilities. Develop and offer graduate degrees, continuing education, online, and other programming in these areas, to extend the College’s educational impact and expand enrollments.
New Programs for Emerging Professions
Identify through environmental and competitive scanning opportunities for new program development consistent with the College’s mission, value proposition, capabilities, and resources. Design and launch new undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs where there are identified needs particularly in the regional community.
Advising, Counseling, and Career Guidance
Significantly invest in the College’s advising, counseling, and career guidance resources to expand personalized assessment, internships and experiential learning, career mentoring, employer outreach, and job placement and advancement.
