The Life Skills Dimension: Making a Living, Living a Life

As part of Champlain’s Education in Three Dimensions, the Life Skills Dimension focuses on learning that is not typically covered in the classroom. It is a required program that spans all four years of a Champlain College education and gives students the tools they’ll need for their personal growth in four areas: career management, financial sophistication, community involvement and individual values exploration.

This third dimension of a Champlain education began by brainstorming with recent graduates and current students, asking them, “What does a student need to know, do and value during college and upon graduation that is not typically covered in the classroom?” Their thoughtful insights gave us a start. We then worked with our faculty to develop a program to complement each student’s academic major and Core studies. Ultimately, we crafted a set of themes and a series of intentional programs and experiences that foster the skills students will need to live satisfying and productive lives.

In the Life Skills Dimension students will:

• Complete a personality inventory assessment. Through facilitated conversations and ongoing analysis over four years, students will use information gleaned from the assessment to help them better understand how to navigate social, academic and professional relationships.
• Gain knowledge—and put it to work—in four specific areas: career management, financial sophistication, community involvement, and individual values exploration.
• Create a contract with their roommate(s) that will challenge each of them to recognize similarities and respect differences in attitudes, behavior and backgrounds.
• Participate in house meetings, community events and other intentional programming that will allow students to gain a new respect for differences among their peers, as well as provide them with the skills they’ll need to develop inclusive communities and solve problems collectively.
• Develop basic financial management skills such as budgeting, understanding credit, buying a car and leasing an apartment.
• Practice and test their resume writing, interviewing and networking skills in preparation for an effective job search.
• Build their own “Toolkit for Life.” Items in their personalized tool kit might include a credit report, a professional resume, their voter registration card, a passport and a “Personal Board of Advisors” tree comprised of the significant people in their professional and personal network
• Experience outside-the-classroom community-building activities, from a Habitat for Humanity project in New Orleans or a wilderness adventure in the Green Mountains to a cultural immersion trip to Boston, Montreal or New York City.
• Network with business and community leaders at campus dinners, at which they will learn tips on social etiquette.

The Life Skills Dimension, which is required of all incoming students, is the third and final component of Champlain’s Education in Three Dimensions, an educational practice unique in American higher education. The other elements are:

The Career Dimension: In our Upside-Down Curriculum, students begin taking classes in their major during their first semester. Most of our professors have experience in the fields in which they teach, which gives students unmatched, practical insight into their career choices. In out-of-class projects and internships, Champlain students apply their knowledge in real-world settings.

The Academic Core Dimension: Our students take a four-year journey that includes a thorough examination of their own lives, the study of Western civilization, a study abroad experience and an assimilation of these academic and cultural experiences in a senior year capstone project.

Through the experiences and learning embodied in the Life Skills Dimension, Champlain College graduates are more than well-educated men and women: they are skilled practitioners, effective professionals and global citizens. The Life Skills Dimension enables our students to develop the financial savvy, civic responsibility, and career skills they’ll need to live engaged, meaningful lives as productive professionals throughout their careers and as contributing members of their communities.