Albright College

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Albright College
13th and Bern Streets
P.O. Box 15234
Reading, PA 19612 | 610.921.2381
Street Address: 1621 N. 13th Street | Reading, PA 19604

it's a gold bulletOur Mission
photo of selwyn hall Our mission is to inspire and educate the scholar and leader in each student, building on a strong foundation in the liberal arts and sciences and a commitment to the best of human values, fostering a commitment to a lifetime of service and learning.

it's a gold bulletOur Vision, Values, Outcomes

Our Vision: We aspire to be widely known and respected for preparing our graduates to be exceptionally successful in navigating an increasingly complex and uncertain world characterized by continuous and dramatic change. We wish, therefore, to attract students who have the capacity and the desire to be engaged members of a supportive and caring learning community that is rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, includes a selection of well-integrated, professional programs, and is characterized by a strong interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to learning. We seek to excel in offering an integrative learning experience that synthesizes theory with practice, promotes critical thinking and effective self expression, and fosters in our students a commitment to a lifetime of service and learning. We challenge our students to cross boundaries and make connections among academic disciplines, campus experiences, and community. We aim to educate individuals of integrity who possess intellectual competencies and personal qualities that will enable them to take up positions of leadership and service whatever their chosen fields and thereby add to the richness, diversity and welfare of our global society.

The values that guide the Albright College community shape both classroom practice and institutional culture. In daily decisions, attitudes and relationships, the entire community models the values, virtues and skills that should be practiced by educated, discerning citizens of the world.

For generations, the words and symbols depicted on the official seal of the College have expressed and sustained those guiding values, including the values implicit in the current College mission statement. Imprinted on the seal are the words Veritas et Justitia, accompanied by the symbols of the lamp of knowledge, the open book (next to a stack of books), and the laurel wreath.

The open book affirms the value we place on academic freedom, in which all forms of truth may be pursued with rigor, candor and openness, free from external restrictions but always subject to inspection, criticism and modification according to the canons of research and reason. The open book, covering the lamp of knowledge, invites each of us to take up the book personally, light the lamp, and read for ourselves.

This lamp of knowledge, with its suggestion of enlightened guidance, thus affirms the value we place on wisdom and understanding as the basis for leadership in life, including leadership in personal, professional, religious and civic affairs.

A stack of books rests next to the lamp of knowledge, symbolizing the value we place on the interrelationship and interdependency of all forms of knowledge and on the vital contribution that every person, of whatever background or tradition, can make to the learning enterprise.

The phrase “truth and justice” points not only to the value we place on each of these ideals, but also to their mutual connectedness. We affirm that the search for knowledge should not be separated from the search for wise and just solutions in human affairs and in the conservation of the natural world. The combined pursuit of truth and justice means we honor, nurture and celebrate human diversity in all its forms and call into question whatever negates or endangers the dignity and worth of the human spirit. The laurel wreath suggests the pride that we have in our tradition of liberal arts and sciences learning and in its enduring importance. It symbolizes our desire that the passion for knowledge, wisdom, skill and virtue [arête] will serve as the basis for lifelong endeavors and achievements.

Finally, we emphasize that these values historically guided our founding in 1856 by the Evangelical Association (later, the Evangelical United Brethren Church) and continue to connect us today to the principles and ideals of higher education of the United Methodist Church.1

1See: General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, “An Education Covenant of Partnership,” adopted by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, May 2000. See also the “Strategic Plan for 2006-2012” of the GBHEM, revised October 2006.

Our Outcomes: Employing an integrative approach to learning, Albright expects our students to achieve the following core outcomes:

* Ability to ask meaningful questions about complex issues and to develop reasoned solutions
* Capacity to think critically and with discernment
* Ability to communicate effectively
* Capacity and desire to serve community and contribute to the greater good

© 2010 Albright College. All Rights Reserved