The Albion Advantage

The Albion Advantage is an enhanced four-year model of education for all Albion students. Grounded in the liberal arts tradition, the Advantage helps students to realize their professional goals through thoughtful integration of academic and experience-based learning opportunities. The goal of the program is to support students in developing their talents as distinctive young professionals who will be competitive in the dynamic global marketplace.

The key components of the Albion Advantage are:

Institutes—In concert with academic departments and other programs, the Institutes offer preprofessional education with an interdisciplinary, future-oriented focus.

Career Readiness Model—The four-year career readiness model is intended to assist all students in fully integrating academic and career planning. With guidance from their faculty adviser, the Career Development Office, and other mentors, students map out their path to graduation, including curricular requirements, experiential learning, assessment of personal strengths and values, and career exploration. This comprehensive four-year plan is recorded in electronic form so that it may be easily shared with employers and/or graduate and professional schools.

Albion Advantage Pledge—The Albion Advantage Pledge is a mutual agreement between the College and participating students to help them achieve their professional goals. Beginning with the Class of 2014, students who fulfill their academic plans and achieve a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA, participate in experiential learning, and engage in approved career development activities will be eligible for the Pledge. If after graduation these students are unable to make progress toward their career or graduate school objectives, the College will assist them in finding alternative options.

Alumni-Student Engagement—Alumni work with students in a mentoring capacity, as well as providing career exploration opportunities (internships, job shadowing, career development workshops,etc.). This interaction will enable students to realize the significance of their academic and experiential learning.

Themes for Exploration -- Programming and reflection on the themes of sustainability (2010-11), health/wellness (2011-12), and global diversity (2012-13) encourage the campus community to come together for a creative sharing of ideas and provocative discussions on topics of common interest.