Certification Prep Courses
Preparation for Certification (MS)
Why Take Certification Prep Courses At USK?
We are pleased to announce University of Saint Katherine’s Preparatory Courses for Certification!
We are currently offering the following two preparatory courses (with more to come!). The cost is $1200 per 3 unit course.
INTEGRATED CORE
The Integrated Core Program provides a solid backbone for Christian liberal arts education at the University of Saint Katherine, unifying both the student experience and curricular progression through cohort-based learning across a cumulative series of interdisciplinary courses. The Integrated Core exposes students to literature, philosophy, theology, history, anthropology, art, economics, sociology, music and political science, and invites them to participate in creative and synthetic thinking about the relationship of the object of these disciplines in reality. Through exposure to diverse fields of study within an interdisciplinary pedagogy that foregrounds the principle of integration and integral knowledge, the IC program engages students in ways that are challenging and rewarding. The Integrated Core exemplifies the centrality of the liberal arts tradition at the University and its commitment to educating the whole person: created in the image of God, formed in community, and inquiring for life in the search for Wisdom.
At the University of Saint Katherine, education is understood to be both a pursuit of truth and a formation in virtue. These two aspects are reflected in the institutional motto, Inquiry Seeking Wisdom. This motto is intended to convey a sense that the search for knowledge should unfold over the course of a life that engages faithfully with present challenges by drawing on the wellsprings of the past.
The University of Saint Katherine is committed to classical learning and a model of education that attends to the rich intellectual and cultural heritage of Western civilization and the broad commonalities of human nature explored by that heritage and its unparalleled depth. This commitment is manifested most of all in our unique Integrated Core curriculum, our faculty scholarship and teaching, and rootedness in the Orthodox Christian tradition.
The Integrated Core curriculum provides a solid backbone for Christian liberal arts education at the University of Saint Katherine, unifying both the student experience and curricular progression through cohort-based learning across a cumulative series of seven interdisciplinary courses. These courses move through ancient, late antique, early Christian, medieval and modern periods, and connect insights into the “everlasting questions” (Dostoevsky) from theological, philosophical, historical, artistic, literary, political, and anthropological perspectives.
Through exposure to diverse fields of study within an Orthodox Christian interdisciplinary pedagogy that foregrounds the principle of integration and integral knowledge, the Integrated Core curriculum engages students in ways that are challenging and rewarding. Amounting to a revamped trivium, the Integrated Core is meant to encourage true, Aristotelian friendship across programs and beyond graduation. The Integrated Core exemplifies the central role of liberal arts at the College and its mission of Inquiry Seeking Wisdom through a commitment to educating the whole person.
The General Education program supports the Integrated Core with a solid grounding in writing, mathematics, science, foreign language, theology, and economics. Faculty-student interaction in small classes, which includes exposure to faculty scholarship on classical topics, encourages the practice of Socratic dialogue and ratiocination. Finally, the Orthodox Christian mission and identity of USK offers a unique approach to the significance of Eastern Christianity and Byzantium as a preserver and transmitter of classical texts and learning to the West. The Orthodox Christian educational approach in the Integrated Core strives to connect intellectual and spiritual life, person and community, beauty and truth.
HONORS TRACK
Within the Integrated Core curriculum, students have the option of pursuing an Honors track in six of the seven IC courses. In return for extra contact hours, reading, and assignments, students will receive an extra unit in addition to the normal 3-units when they apply to take an IC course for Honors. This track enables students to accrue up to an additional 6-units of credit. This distinction will be indicated on the student’s transcript.
