Understanding PLU's General Education Program
PLU’s General Education Program prepares graduates to ask significant questions, engage relevant knowledge, and wrestle with complex issues.
The program is rooted in the classical liberal arts and sciences as understood within the Lutheran educational tradition, and is grounded in an understanding of scientific perspectives, mathematics, languages, and the longstanding traditions of critical discourse about nature, humanity, and the world. The array of academic disciplines has developed through a set of lenses through which we view the world. Through exposure to current procedures, methods, and accumulated knowledge of those disciplines, PLU welcomes students into on-going conversations about nature and the human condition. While immersed in these rigorous conversations, students are challenged to think critically, discern and formulate values, express themselves effectively and creatively, interact with others respectfully, and understand the world from various perspectives. PLU thus educates students for courageous lives: lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership, and care – for other people, their communities, and the earth.
General Education is important for who you are and who you will become. We invite you to see the way in which this program intersects with your major and electives, and prepares you for meaningful careers and courageous lives.