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 Here at Wartburg College, we cheerfully accept the responsibility summed up in our mission statement to challenge and nurture students for lives of leadership and service that express the faith and learning they develop and attain while in our charge.
In this catalog, you can read about the policies and practices students must follow to complete their studies and receive their diplomas. You also, however, can read about something much more important. We articulate our most deeply held convictions about education. Taking quite seriously our obligation to lay a firm foundation of knowledge upon which students can build the remainder of their lives, we describe a powerful common curriculum, our Plan of Essential Education. Designed to impart the riches of a liberal education, that is, the essential wisdom that equips any citizen for productive engagement in communities, this plan provides students with opportunities to hone their skills of inquiring, reasoning, and writing while acquainting them with the many bodies of knowledge that shape our culture and inform our lives.
We describe a robust array of 50 academic majors intended to fulfill our goal of both rigor and usefulness. We offer students many opportunities to study subjects deeply, guided by knowledgeable and mentoring professors. We know such opportunities build students’ confidence and empower them to live out their learning in meaningful ways-whether that’s post-graduate education or immediate entry into the world of work.
In this catalog, you also will see the many interdisciplinary and individualized options for students-from earning a leadership certificate to studying abroad, from pursuing undergraduate research to enhancing a course with service-learning. Attending to each student’s needs, we offer countless options to cultivate and refine those mental tools that ensure success.
Wartburg is a welcoming, vibrant, and exciting community that our students have helped to build and continue to sustain. Striving to excel in all that they do, these students push themselves, as well as those of us who work here, to reach for challenging goals and to achieve them.
I welcome you to Wartburg, confident that you will find much to learn and to love in this place.
Dr. Darrel D. Colson, President
The academic programs of Wartburg College reflect the commitment of our faculty to a whole-person, transformational learning experience for our students that will provide the foundation for a lifetime of growth, engagement, and  success. Our core Essential Education program, major, minor, and certificate programs, and elective courses provide the intellectual breadth and depth that are the hallmark of a liberal arts education. Your learning experiences at Wartburg College will enable you to see the critical connections between disciplines that provide a robust understanding of our complex world, and will provide strong preparation in your major field of study. Upon completion of your program of learning at Wartburg, you will be equipped with broadly applicable knowledge and skills that will enable you to claim your calling. You will be poised to successfully begin your career or to attend graduate or professional school, and to continue a lifelong process of learning, civic activity, leadership, and ethical decision making.
In addition to our more traditional curriculum, Wartburg College offers a variety of learning opportunities that will challenge and nurture you in ways you may not have experienced before. Through travel, study abroad, experiential learning, service learning, civic engagement, community service, undergraduate research, and close work with individual faculty you will be afforded deep learning experiences. In a world that is growing ever smaller through technology, and catch phrases such as globalization, “the world is flat,” and “knowledge economy” become daily realities, it is increasingly important to engage our larger world from the local to the international scale. As you experience a Wartburg education, be prepared for the expectation to reach outside of your personal and intellectual comfort zones as you learn to understand and appreciate a wide range of peoples, cultures, and languages, both within the United States and around the world.
The faculty and staff of Wartburg College believe that your personal and intellectual growth must occur within the context of ethical and spiritual development. Your whole-person educational experience will ask you to embrace ethical behavior and decision making that are guided by your thoughtfully-examined beliefs. Wartburg College is a vibrant community of living, learning, and service, and you will have ample opportunities to contribute to the growth and integrity of this community through co-curricular activities, life in the residence halls, student organizations, intercollegiate and intramural athletics, and your classes.
On behalf of the faculty of Wartburg College, I wish you the very best in your academic endeavors, and encourage you to take full advantage of the fully-orbed and rigorous learning and growth experiences that Wartburg College has to offer.
Dr. Brian Ernsting, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty
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