Ohio Wesleyan University is using a one-year, $20,000 NetVUE Professional Development Award to continue infusing its academic curriculum with nine liberal arts “power skills” that prepare OWU students for long-term career adaptability and success. The Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE) grant was awarded to Barbara Bird, Ph.D., director of Ohio Wesleyan’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation. The NetVUE program is a component of the Washington, D.C.-based Council of Independent Colleges, supported with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana. “Ohio Wesleyan wants to ensure its graduates are ready to tackle world-impacting work, and our NetVUE Award advances this effort,” said Bird. “Using the grant funds, nine OWU professors will develop innovative ways to integrate one of the power skills, or core competencies, into a course and then share their newly developed best practices with their faculty colleagues.” Before they graduate, all students must successfully complete at least one course in each core competency. The skills were added to OWU’s General Education curriculum in fall 2023 and were designed with the overarching purpose of helping “students to find their place in the world and make their mark upon it.” Ohio Wesleyan’s nine power skills are:
- Think aesthetically
- Reason formally and quantitatively
- Question scientifically
- Listen, imagine, and understand
- Write and speak effectively
- Learn a second language
- Examine power and inequities
- Engage diversity
- Act responsibly
Provost Karlyn Crowley, Ph.D., OWU’s chief academic officer, said the power skills incorporate liberal arts skills that “align with the traits that surveys show employers value most highly.” The skills, she added, “are critical for being an informed and contributing global citizen – and for being successful in a career.” Learn more about Ohio Wesleyan’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Innovation at www.owu.edu/CTLI and more about the core competencies at www.owu.edu/PowerSkills.
OWU Sponsoring Organization/Office: Foundation Relations Office
Contact: Susan Zimmerman at grants@owu.edu