By Laura Barlament
Launched in 1998, the Wagner Plan for the Practical Liberal Arts has now guided a generation of Wagner students.
What sets the Wagner Plan apart from a traditional liberal arts education? A series of special courses, called “Learning Communities,” show students how different disciplines work together to address large questions or issues. The Wagner Plan also incorporates experiential learning, so that students apply what they are learning in the community or in the workplace.
Wagner students take three Learning Communities — First-Year, Intermediate, and Senior — along with other general education courses and their major and/or minor courses.
Over the past few months, I have interviewed alumni who have graduated under the Wagner Plan, asking them how this educational model affected them and what continuing influence it has in their lives.
What I heard again and again is that the Wagner Plan enables students, in the words of Quincy Rasin ’18, to “create your own story.”
- An Administrator Serving First-Generation College Students
- A Music Promoter and Change Manager
- A Prison Social Worker and Reformer
- A Language Teacher and Global Citizen
- A Public Relations Specialist and Civic Leader
- An Internal Auditor Who Can Connect the Dots
- One Class, Many Paths
- An Urban Physician Devoted to Diversity
- A Corporate Lawyer with a Heart for Social Justice
- A Community-Based Researcher with Eclectic Taste
