Discover Lesley’s engaging general education curriculum: the CommonLynx
The CommonLynx provides you with the skills and knowledge to excel in your career and address pressing issues in the world, such as social justice and environmental sustainability. Collaborating across disciplines, faculty started with the end in mind (referred to as “outcomes”) to design learning experiences that set you up for success in the 21st century.
The CommonLynx: a path to your unique degree plan.
Through the CommonLynx, you can get creative and choose courses based on learning outcomes and your goals, rather than simply checking boxes in each subject area. The new curriculum integrates coursework in the arts and design with numerous liberal arts and science majors, including psychology and applied therapies, education, business, social work, the sciences—for greater collaboration and opportunity to pursue a degree plan and career path that is uniquely yours.
Outcomes
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Foundational Outcomes
In your first year, you will take innovative courses that introduce the first four foundational skills—collaboration, analysis, quantitative reasoning, and communication. These skills will provide you the bedrock to support your work at Lesley and beyond.
Collaboration
You will take unique courses to explore critical issues and develop skills to work collaboratively with your peers, such as:
- Art and Social Justice
- Thinking Outside the Bubble
- Romantic Relationships
- Prison Stories
- Doing Good and Looking Good
- Image in Context
Analysis
You’ll take a course that enhances your skills to critically examine media, literature, and visual images.
Quantitative Reasoning
You’ll take courses that sharpen your skills in using numbers to analyze and solve real world problems.
Communication
You’ll take a course that inspires powerful expression.
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Perspective Outcomes & Inquiry Methods
The main part of The CommonLynx curriculum is arranged around these next five outcomes. By looking at issues from multiple viewpoints, you gain new perspectives for improved solutions. Faculty encourage students to pursue their areas of interest and explore critical issues and different ways of problem solving to promote a more just and sustainable future.
Create, Perform & Design
Sample courses:
- Art and Craft of Screenwriting
- Swing Dance
- Figure Painting
- Principles of Art Therapy
Human Relationships to the Natural World
Sample courses:
- Why nature?
- Environmental Politics and Policy
- History of Science
- Astronomy
- Environmental Sustainability
Local & Global Connections
Sample courses:
- Comparative, International, and Alternative Medicine
- World Mythology
- Art Across Borders
- Children in Global Perspective
- Anime: Roots to Modern Day
Examining Power & Inequity
Sample courses:
- Young Adult Literature
- African American History
- Tech-Disaster Films
- Challenging Racism
- Cross-cultural Psychology
- Gender, Race, and Animation
Ethical Reasoning, Social Action, & Civic Engagement
Sample courses:
- Activism and Change
- Embracing Diversity in Classroom Communities
- Disability Studies
- Postcolonial History and Literature
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The Applications Course
The capstone of The CommonLynx is one of our newly designed Applications courses. In these problem-based, transdisciplinary courses, you will engage with others and reflect on your learning through exciting community projects and real issues facing today's world.
Sample courses:
- Urban Ecological Gardening
- Active Hope
- Politics and Climate Change
- Children's Literature, Mindfulness, and Human Development
- Public Space and the Politics of Representation
Log in to Transferology, add the courses you've taken, and see how they'll transfer to Lesley University.
Funding
The redesign of Lesley’s general education was supported by a grant received from the Davis Educational Foundation established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after Mr. Davis’s retirement as Chairman of Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc.
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Faculty
Ingrid Johnston
Associate Dean
Ingrid joins Lesley from Alfred State College in New York, where she was Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. She has a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Rhode Island and has held faculty appointments at Connecticut College and SUNY Fredonia where she was promoted to full professor in 2012. While at SUNY Fredonia, Ingrid also served as the Director of the Women’s Studies program and as an Assistant Dean. Following her 15 years at SUNY Fredonia, Ingrid moved to Castleton University in Vermont where she served for three years as the Associate Academic Dean and two years as Dean of Special Academic Programs. Ingrid has experience in many areas of academic leadership including leading Student Success Initiatives, coordinating a First Year Seminar program, supervising an Honors program, expanding a Civic Engagement Certificate program, and conducting Academic Program Assessment.
Summer Clark
Associate Professor
Dr. Clark is passionate about re-envisioning the classroom as a community grounded in equity, caring, and wonder.
During her thirteen years of teaching prior to joining Lesley, her students awakened and inspired her in ways she would have never before imagined. Her K-12 students in Mississippi, Atlanta, Morocco, DC, and Baltimore, and her hundreds of college and graduate students in Maryland taught her the power and complexities in constructing classroom communities. Today Dr. Clark continues to illuminate what transformative literacy teaching might be through collaborative action-oriented research. She explores the possibilities for education as a process of awakening and social action.
Dr. Clark has a M.Ed. from University of Mississippi, Ed.S. from University of Georgia, and Ph.D. from University of Maryland, College Park.
Julie Shoemaker
Associate Professor
A biogeochemist by training, Dr. Shoemaker’s work has involved studying Earth’s biological systems using geochemical approaches. Her research focuses on understanding and predicting methane emissions from wetlands and forests and their impact on global climate. Her areas of academic expertise include: earth science, climate change, and carbon and methane biogeochemistry. At Lesley she is dedicated to mentoring her students. She holds a PhD in Biology from Harvard.
Christine Collins
Associate Professor, Photography Department Chair
Christine Collins received her BA from Skidmore College and her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In addition to the courses she teaches with us, Christine also teaches photography workshops at Maine Media Workshops and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Her editorial clients include The New York Times Magazine and Bloomberg Business.