Fort Lewis College - Other Programs

Other Programs

Academic success services

• Tutoring Center
• Modern Language Lab
• Algebra Alcove
• Math Assistance Center
• Writing Center

Common Reading Experience

Through the Common Reading Experience, students, faculty, and Durango community members explore ideas together by reading and discussing the same book and the issues it highlights. Since its creation in 2006, the Common Reading Experience has examined books including Folding Paper Cranes: An Atomic Memoir; Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World; Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with his Mother; Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference; and The Heart & the Fist: The education of a humanitarian, the making of a Navy seal.

Community Based Learning & Research

The Center for Civic Engagement's Community Based Learning & Research program supports faculty and students in constructing their civic-engagement learning experiences. The program oversees all course, project, and independent work to see they meet the standards of best practice as approved by campus and community reviewers.

The program also compiles a Civic Engagement Transcript students can receive after graduation. The transcript is separate from but augments the college's standard transcript by supplying an officially recognized and quantified listing of experiences in participatory community work both in and out of classes. The transcript also includes a brief description of each activity to serve as a guide for employers or institutions that later refer to the record. The transcript records five areas of civic-engagement experience and accomplishment:

• coursework
• civic service
• internships
• awards and recognitions
• extracurricular creative and scholarly projects

Engineers Without Borders

Fort Lewis College Engineers Without Borders is an all-volunteer program open to students in any major that travels to third-world countries and uses engineering skills to improve the community infrastructure in impoverished areas. Students, faculty, and community members work together during the school year prior to the trip planning their projects, then the chapter raises all of the funds needed to carry out the construction, including the price of materials.

The students, professors, and professionals in the Fort Lewis College chapter of Engineers Without Borders are part of Engineers Without Borders USA, a nationwide organization of engineering and science professionals that volunteers its skills and labor to provide necessities such as clean water, power, sanitation, and education to disadvantaged areas around the world. The group has 250 dedicated chapters, including university chapters on more than 180 campuses throughout the United States.

Global studies

“Education for Global Citizenship” is an upper-division liberal arts requirement that incorporates discussion of globalization and civic engagement in order to develop an awareness of global relationships through a variety of critical thinking skills and topical explorations. To meet the requirement, students take two upper-division courses outside their major field.

John F. Reed Honors Program

The John F. Reed Honors Program is for high-achieving students, bringing together co-curricular events, interaction with professionals and scholars, and in-depth research skills for interdisciplinary academic enrichment.

To acknowledge the extra effort of Honors Program's participants, at graduation qualified Honors Scholars receive special recognition at Honors convocation and earn a minor in the Rhetoric of Inquiry. Students also receive a bound copy of their Honors Thesis, a writing sample helpful for admission to graduate programs.

STEM3

The STEM3 Student Success Center mentors and assists eligible students in academic success in majors related to science, technology, engineering, and math, through academic, career, financial, personal, social, and technological assistance. STEM3 is a federal TRiO program (a Student Support Services program) funded by a grant from the United States Department of Education.

The program has its own on-campus computer lab and study area, where it also provides tutoring, workshops, advising, and technological and educational resources for students. STEM3 also provides scholarships for first-generation, income-eligible, and disability-challenged students.

Study Abroad

About 10 percent of Fort Lewis students study abroad each year through a variety of programs, including Innovative Months, Engineers without Borders, departmental programs, and International Student Exchange Programs, a non-profit world-wide network of more than 300 colleges and universities in 45 countries cooperating to provide affordable access to international studies.

The Fort Lewis College International Programs Office helps students plan and succeed in their study abroad experience. The office also offers a one-credit class that helps students investigate destinations and programs, and work through the steps to setting up a study-abroad experience.

Sustainability & Environmental Awareness

Fort Lewis College, with its outdoor culture and mountain setting, puts a strong emphasis on environmental awareness and sustainability. To institutionalize those perspectives, the college in 2007 became a signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, and in 2009, the President and the Board of Trustees approved a Fort Lewis College Sustainability Action Plan. Initiatives under the plan are funded by a Sustainability Initiatives Fee, an addition to the student activities fees voted in by the student body in 2008.

FLC offers several environment and/or sustainability-related majors, including Environmental Studies, Environmental Biology, and Environmental Geology. There are also classes about clean technologies, such those studying, researching, and applying green chemistry practices in the Chemistry Department. FLC's outdoor, field, and community-based programs also encompass environmental stewardship, including courses in Adventure Education, Geology, Sociology, and Anthropology.

The Environmental Center is the student nexus for environmental action on campus. Programs from the EC include the Climate Action team, SEEDS Campus Ecology Club, support for local food and the Local First campaign, the Sustainable Business team, and the Zero-Waste team.

Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate research is the principal Senior-year experience at Fort Lewis College in many disciplines, including the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Because of its emphasis on undergraduate-only education, students at Fort Lewis College have research opportunities that are often reserved for only graduate students at larger universities, with the college providing faculty mentors and grants to pay for research.