Overview of the Office of Integrative Learning

Integrative Learning offers a variety of programs and resources to fully engage students in their lifelong educational journeys and assist them in making connections between school, work, and all other spheres of their everyday lives.  The purpose of the Office of Integrative Learning is to help students transcend boundaries between academic, personal, and work life to become engaged, ethical, and academically proficient learners.

While classroom learning provides students with a solid foundation of critical thinking skills and a liberal arts curriculum, curricular and co-curricular studies and experiential education offer “real life” preparation for future careers.  The Office of Integrative Learning believes that learning occurs when students reflect and make connections between theory and practice.  The critical thinking skills which allow students to excel academically also yield professional success and a strong commitment to their communities.

Collaborative programs available through the Office of Integrative Learning encourage students to examine links between academics, culture, and volunteer or professional work to fully engage their chosen field of study throughout and beyond the higher education experience.

Some of the hallmark programs of the Office of Integrative Learning are:  

• Campus Conversation Series, which brings disciplines together around a central theme.

• Community Reading Project, which brings campus and community together to discuss social ethics and academics as applied to literature.

• The Dialogues on Liberal Education, a series of highly interactive seminars that draw from centuries of theory and philosophy to examine contemporary ideas about higher education.

• The LIB 100 class and programs, which encourage students to critique and shape their own educational paths.

• Student Summer Scholars, an opportunity for mentorship student-driven research and reflection on diverse and intersecting disciplines. 

• Student Scholarship Day, a year-end discussion and celebration of the academic and creative accomplishments of GVSU students.