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Vital Studies for Whole Life Design

The VIA program consists of six challenging interdisciplinary courses that focus in particular on the great ideas in history that inform the building of the "Good Life." Taken together, the courses provide a pathway (via in Latin) to graduation and to the best preparation for life in the 21st century.

Working with professors as a team, students in the VIA program take one course together each semester beginning in the fall of the sophomore year and continuing until graduation. Four of the six courses fulfill Core Curriculum requirements.

Goals for Whole Life Design

The VIA program provides an integrated approach to a whole life design and emphasizes the development of:

  • The ability to organize thoughts orally and in writing
  • Creative intuition
  • Good conversation as an essential part of education
  • Humility (the ability to listen)
  • Ethical principles (community responsibility, service and leadership)
  • A sense of humor
  • Imagination
  • The ability to exchange ideas in a teamwork setting
  • Passionate teaching and learning
  • Cultural and gender empathy
VIA Program Staff

Dr. Katherine Lawber
Director of the VIA Program and Professor of Modern and Classical Languages
Office: (401) 341-3132
E-mail: lawberk@salve.edu

Student Spotlight

Photo of Sam Young
Sam Young '11
East Bridgewater, Mass.
Major: History and secondary education

"VIA is real life learning," says Sam Young '11, a history and secondary education major enrolled in the interdisciplinary program exploring the great ideas in history. A vocal VIA proponent, Young says the program has helped to shape and construct his current worldview. "I think VIA really pushes students to look not only around them, but also inward," he says.

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