The Bachelor of Arts in Humanities
The Bachelor of Arts in Humanities at Matteo Ricci College is an accelerated three-year bachelor’s degree, the result of longstanding partnerships with six local Catholic high schools. The first of these, Seattle Preparatory School, our sister Jesuit institution here in Seattle, saw the genesis of the degree program in the 1970’s, devising a curriculum capable of readying students for rigorous university learning in just three years of secondary school. In this respect Seattle Preparatory School has been a leader in the nation in innovation and integration of coursework. Its motto, “Learning to learn, learning to live, learning to love”, has brought to Seattle University generations of exceptionally capable students. These students “commence” to our campus following their third year of high school but, for a year, they also remain welcome to participate in many student activities at Seattle Preparatory.
In the late 1980’s, Matteo Ricci College began conversations leading to partnerships with five additional secondary schools: Archbishop Murphy, Eastside Catholic, Forest Ridge, John F. Kennedy, and O’Dea. In these latter five schools we collaborate on curriculum and instruction, and in all cases Seattle University courses are taught for full credit on their campuses. These “Consortium students” have also performed excellently, both academically and more broadly. Together with the students from Seattle Preparatory, they have given to the University a long list of student body officers, sports stars and team captains, and leaders in student clubs and campus ministry. Admission to the program leading to this exceptional degree is open only to students from these six schools.
Students earn two degrees
There is more to beauty than symmetry.
This degree was never intended to be the end of any student’s education. While we have seen many students move directly and with great success from the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities to law school or to employment where their education continues in a corporate environment, most students today take advantage of the program to earn two degrees in four years. (Not a “double major” but two full degrees!) These students combine technical education or pre-professional education (and a degree!) in the sciences, business, nursing, or the arts, with an additional degree in humanities (for more information please see our Degree Requirements and Curriculum page). They emerge from four years of higher education with the best of both worlds: a respected training in a career specialty and the human abilities to make the most of that training for the greater good.
Proficiency in those skills which most distinguish us as humans
The foundation of the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities is a colorful and rigorous curriculum in the wisdoms of the past and the present, from the ancient Greeks to modern philosophies of education. Thinkers are studied directly, in their own writings; the arts, likewise directly. With experienced guidance, students learn to enlighten each other with their insights. Meanwhile students are growing in real proficiency in those skills which most distinguish us as humans: reading, listening, writing, speaking, and collaborating. The power of the humanities rests on expertise in these skills, so that one can fuel the minds and fire the imaginations of other people, be they children or adults. Discernment, too, plays an important role. Students learn to think carefully about what might be best, for themselves and for others.
Experts teach small classes
The specialized curriculum in the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities helps the students to connect the lofty values of great thinkers to the world immediately around them. Experts teach small classes on contemporary socio-economic problems and our experience with possible solutions. Our concern is not with abstractions but with concrete harm, pain, and grief, and what can be done to alleviate them; abstraction follows. Students are required to make a detailed study of a significantly foreign culture, and study abroad is facilitated and strongly encouraged. As students complete their degrees, they undertake an intensive ten-credit Capstone experience. Recent offerings have included courses on problems in health care in the Seattle area, including extensive contact with the suffering and with the professionals working on the problems. Other options have included travel courses on the arts (taught in New York City) and an insider’s view of American politics (taught in Washington, DC).
Each student is treated as an individual
The Bachelor of Arts in Humanities is a “cohort program”, meaning that students enter only as freshmen and proceed together through many of the steps toward graduation. This creates a strong bond among students and a helpful support group. Each student is treated as an individual, but sharing knowledge and feelings can be an important help to success. If, on the other hand, a student decides, for whatever reason, to leave the program, the foundational courses in Matteo Ricci College can be counted as fulfillment of most of the University’s “Core requirements”, so that students who might choose to transfer out of Matteo Ricci College will find that they have lost relatively little time in progressing toward some other degree. What they do lose, however, is the opportunity to earn two degrees in four years.
Students in this degree program have often been very adventurous. The time-shortened nature of the program has given students grand opportunities for internships, travel, foreign study, additional language training, and the wise process of trying courses in various fields before settling on a career objective. Further, many of the second and third-year courses are cross-registered, meaning that usually half or more of those enrolled will come from other parts of Seattle University’s very diverse student body. Matteo Ricci College students find themselves making friends with students from other parts of the United States, from many other nations, and of other ages and walks of life. This diversity is also a valued part of a Matteo Ricci College education.