President Bergeron talks Connections with Northeast Public Radio

Not all liberal arts programs are created equal, according to Bob Barrett, producer and host of the nationally syndicated “Best of Our Knowledge” program, which airs on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio.

Barrett came to this conclusion after hosting Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron, who spoke to Barrett about Connections, Conn College’s reinvention of liberal arts education.

According to Bergeron, Connections is a new kind of curriculum that lets students integrate their interests into a meaningful educational pathway, which carries them through college and into a fulfilling, effective career and life.

Connections allows for students to “put the world together in new ways by combining interdisciplinary studies and a relevant internship with a world language and a whole interconnected outlook. It’s the new liberal arts for our interconnected world,” Bergeron said.

Barrett went on to ask whether or not a liberal arts education is still a valid tool in today’s job market, saying that in most cases the answer is a guarded or resounding yes.

Bergeron explained that in today’s economy, a liberal arts education is even more important than it has been in the past.

In addition to students learning to put the world together in new ways, Connections also enables students to “orchestrate their education with a team of advisors and learn for life beyond college,” Bergeron said.

The skills Conn’s students develop are “higher order skills that produce a nimbleness or a flexibility of mind that allows them to learn under changing circumstances. This adaptive capacity becomes more necessary in today’s global economy.”

---

August 24, 2017