Dickinson College was created explicitly for high purposes: to prepare young people, by means of a useful education in the liberal arts and sciences, for engaged lives of citizenship and leadership in the service of society. Founded by Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the college was chartered in 1783, just days after the conclusion of the American Revolution with the specific purpose of preparing the citizens and leaders who would ensure the success of the new democracy. It was to offer a distinctively original form of American education—one that was rigorously rooted in the traditional liberal arts and was, at the same time, innovative, forward-looking and ultimately useful. It was a revolutionary education designed for a revolutionary age.
As we face the challenges and complexities of the 21st century, Dickinson continues to seek direction from this revolutionary heritage within a contemporary context. A Dickinson education prepares its graduates to become engaged citizens by incorporating a global vision that permeates the entire student experience, creating a community of inquiry that allows students to cross disciplinary boundaries and make new intellectual connections, and encouraging students to be enterprising and active by engaging their communities, the nation and the world.
Dickinson offers a liberal arts education that is distinctive in purpose and approach. Our founders intended Dickinson graduates to use their liberal arts education as a powerful agent of change to advance the lot of humankind. We expect no less today.
Denmark, despite its cold and gloomy winters, is full of people who consistently rank among the happiest in the world.
Students from the public school where more than 200 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 on their first day back at the school.
STRINGER/AFP via GettyImages
The word, which roughly translates to considering the needs of society above your own, has become a buzzword in Denmark.
A detail from Abbott Thayer’s 1887 painting ‘Angel,’ in which his eldest daughter appears as a heavenly figure.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of John Gellatly
Humans tend to downplay their own susceptibility to being harmed – an attitude of ‘it won’t happen to me’ that could be hindering the collective response to the pandemic.
Taylor Swift, one of millions of Americans who has struggled with an eating disorder.
AP Images/Invision/Charles Sykes
As National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is observed Feb. 24-March 1, here are some things to consider.
Many of Latin America’s leftist ‘revolutions’ are now in crisis. But the left is resurging in some countries.
The Conversation / Photo Claudia Daut/Reuters
Progressives are leading in the presidential elections of Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia, bucking the region’s recent rightward trend. But there are lessons in the failures of leftists past.
Chibok schoolgirls freed from Boko Haram captivity shown in Abuja, Nigeria in 2017.
Olamikan Gbemiga/AP
Four young women who escaped Boko Haram during the 2014 Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping are now studying in the US. Their professor recounts a recent breakthrough in their quest to go to college.
Instead of overreacting to minor slights, it’s healthier to just say, ‘pyt.’
Ezume Images/Shutterstock.com
Despite the primacy of Christmas in American culture, the visibility of Hanukkah in pop culture reminds Jews that they have their own holiday in which they can take pride.
An expert explains why the Jewish practice of abstaining from food on Yom Kippur is so out of step with the rest of Jewish tradition.
The 1947 and 1956 editions of the ‘Green Book,’ which was published to advise black motorists where they should – and shouldn’t – frequent during their travels.
Image on the left: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. Image on right: Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.
From the 1930s to the 1960s, ‘The Negro Motorist’s Green Book’ and ‘Travelguide: Vacation and Recreation Without Humiliation’ offered African-American roadtrippers lists of black-friendly businesses.
Okay, we get it, you’re happy – no need to rub it in.
Very_Very/Shutterstock.com