Vital Studies for Whole Life Design - Salve Regina University

Director: James Hersh, Ph.D.

THE VIA PROGRAM

Are you actively designing the best possible life?

The VIA Program, "Vital Studies for Whole Life Design," is a program of six challenging courses in which you work together with professors and other students as a team. As students in the VIA Program you will take one course together each semester beginning in the fall of your sophomore year and continuing until your graduation. The courses cover many areas of study, but focus in particular on the "great ideas" in history that teach us how to construct the "Good Life." Four of the courses will fulfill general education requirements. Taken together, these courses provide a "pathway" (via in Latin) to graduation and to the best preparation for life in the 21st century.

Ten 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

"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Socrates

Freshman interested in this program should contact:

Dr. James Hersh, Director, 2005-2007
hershj@salve.edu ext. 3171

Dr. Katherine Lawber, Director, 2007-2009
lawberk@salve.edu ext. 3132