By Ann Marie Deer Owens
Creating a shared academic experience for students. Equipping students with the fundamental capacities to succeed in today’s world. Strengthening faculty collaboration across disciplines. These are among the many goals that the A&S College Core, the College of Arts and Science’s general education curriculum, accomplished in its first year. The College Core, which launched in fall 2025, is a completely reimagined and innovative undergraduate educational experience for A&S undergraduates. It continues to be refined for enhanced student and faculty experiences going forward.
“I’m thrilled that the implementation of the College Core has come to fruition, creating the dynamic intellectual environment that we anticipated,” said Paul Stob, professor of communication studies and the first director of the College Core. “We responded to a need to build a curriculum that was more intentional and transparent for our students, so they would understand its purpose.”
Starting with a blank slate
The previous A&S general education curriculum, called Achieve eXcellence in Liberal Education (AXLE), had been unchanged for nearly two decades when a faculty committee began a deep-dive assessment in 2022. Led by Sarah Igo, Andrew Jackson Chair in American History and former dean of strategic initiatives for the college, the committee and 18 faculty working groups conducted extensive research, designed the new curriculum from scratch, and secured faculty approval in 2023.
Stob noted that while many universities have revised their curricula, A&S faculty took the opportunity to build the College Core from the ground up. Some other institutions have only “bolted on” material to existing curricula.
The college piloted the College Core in the 2024-25 academic year with 35 pilot courses. Chizara Idkika, a rising junior, neuroscience major, and Posse Scholar, was among the first students to enroll in the pilots. “The professors selected thought-provoking texts that helped teach critical thinking and fostered conversations that were challenging in the face of what was happening in the world,” Idkika said. “I appreciated that they included faculty from a variety of disciplines, bringing perspectives that help students understand what general education is all about.”
A common intellectual experience
The entire curriculum is rooted in teaching students five core capacities: written and creative expression; systemic and structural reasoning; cultural and interpretive investigation; data literacy and computational thinking; and ethical and social engagement. Students learn about, explore, discuss, and refine these capacities through a series of courses throughout their four years.
All first-year A&S students take two courses that introduce them to the capacities: Being Human in the fall semester and Science, Technology and Values in the spring. These First-Year Core courses are small and discussion-based, taught by faculty across the college in different departments and fields.
“We want to provide a shared intellectual experience across the students’ first two semesters,” said Ken MacLeish, associate professor of medicine, health, and society and anthropology and the new director of the College Core. “The College Core has done this in its first year, while also providing specific tools to help students develop and cultivate the capacities they need to achieve their aspirations in college and beyond.”
First-Year Core classes are limited to approximately 15 students. “With most introductory college courses tending to be large and lecture-style, I appreciated the small-group discussions with my peers,” said Ami Singh, a rising sophomore who is majoring in medicine, health, and society. In high school she had read Educated, Tara Westover’s memoir, but it was a completely different experience to dissect the text with classmates from varied backgrounds and perspectives.
Students continue sophomore year with two Exploratory Core courses of their choosing, designed to explore complex issues facing the world today. They then build on these foundations as they move into more advanced, concentrated study with classes tagged with one or more of the five capacities.
Elisabeth Sandberg, senior lecturer of psychology, has taught four Core classes and will teach two more in the upcoming academic year. “I love helping students understand that, unlike high school, it is fine and even desirable to take risks by expressing a controversial opinion that might not be correct,” Sandberg said. “Most young people are reluctant initially because it’s not the kind of class they have ever taken.” She wants students to be prepared to explore, evaluate, and challenge ideas when they are deep into their majors.
Anna Bowman Fletcher, a rising sophomore and biochemistry major, enjoyed the informal debates that often continued beyond class. Last fall students read Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves by Frans de Waal. Their discussion centered on what makes humans distinct. “It was fun to see where classmates’ opinions took us and the line of reasoning that would follow,” Fletcher said. “We also had intense debates about conspiracy theories, with half of the class having to argue they were true and the other half trying to debunk them.”
Teaching innovations
Among the College Core’s innovations is use of a specification grading system instead of points for grading. Students earn their grades by completing assignments like reading responses and contributing to class discussions. “The power to receive an A is based on effort,” Sandberg said. “This relieves some of the pressure of being correct all the time. Students feel more comfortable with exploring ideas and stretching their imaginations.”
The College Core encourages students to think more deliberately about their academic choices and career interests. Benigno Trigo, professor of Spanish and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, taught both of the first-year classes and served on a curriculum design committee. “I’ve had several students who were interested in science but had not yet identified a particular field,” Trigo said. “During our discussions they became fascinated with artificial intelligence. Now they hope to have a strong focus on AI in whatever career they pursue.”
One of Idkika’s favorite assignments in the Being Human course was the translation project. Students had to turn one of their essays into another form of expression. Her paper had focused on the impact of religious fundamentalism on society, including book banning. For her translation, she drew a hand holding a Bible. There was a ring on the forefinger that was too small, causing bruising and blood on the finger.
Strengthening faculty collaborations
Approximately 70 A&S faculty members teach the First-Year Core each semester, representing a wide range of academic fields and approaches. A faculty committee selects the class readings and produces teaching guides for each session, so professors have consistent information to understand the texts in a broader context and teach key themes. They are free to teach the material as they think best, given their different areas of expertise.
Many instructors have seen the College Core break down silos among the faculty. The First-Year Core, in particular, fosters conversations and idea sharing among faculty across the divisions of the college in ways that have not happened previously.
Beyond the Core
Beyond the Core is the curriculum’s hands-on learning piece. Students can choose how they want to earn this one credit in their first year from a variety of options, ranging from attending events to writing articles to using the university’s academic support resources.
“Vanderbilt students love experiential learning,” said Elizabeth Catania, associate professor of the practice of neuroscience and associate director of the College Core. “We just want to be sure that they engage with campus resources in a thoughtful way and reflect on how experiential learning integrates with their academic career. That is the goal, but specifications for their integrative discovery projects could change over time as we learn what works best for students.”
Ramya Dixon, a rising sophomore, enjoyed acting in a student-led production of Bonnie and Clyve for her fourth credit hour. “As a neuroscience and psychology major, I am not usually involved in plays, but I loved playing Bonnie,” she said. Dixon took photos of her student-designed costume and wrote about her engagement with Vanderbilt Theatre.
Fletcher wrote about her internship in the Gould Lab at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she is assisting with research on cell division involving fission yeast. “Having to explain the project in a few pages—so that nonscientists could comprehend it—helped solidify my own understanding of what I was doing and why,” Fletcher said.
Singh wrote an article for the STEM publication Vanderbilt Vanguard. Meeting with her College Core adviser early in the semester helped set the direction for her project.
For MacLeish, the opportunity as a teacher to learn more about first-year students’ interests outside of the classroom was an unexpected benefit of Beyond the Core. “We’re continuing to look for ways to make it run as smoothly as possible for everyone. But it was an incredibly rewarding experience to be in conversation with my students about so many different aspects of their early college life,” he said.
Keeping the College Core fresh
Every year the College Core leadership reviews the first-year courses and makes changes based on faculty and student feedback. At least every other year the courses will undergo extensive revision to stay relevant, which is distinctive for a university general education curriculum.
“The College Core has achieved amazing things so far. And of course we’re eager to find ways to smooth out some of the practicalities as we go along,” MacLeish said. He looks forward to seeing the impact of the first- and second-year Core classes on juniors and seniors in the coming years. Ultimately, the Core is intended to help students learn how to think and explore perspectives different from their own. “As teachers in our own departments and programs, all of us will be able to see how learning is shaped semester by semester, opening up exciting new possibilities in the classroom.”