Letter from PLC’s Executive Director

May 15, 2011

Letter from PLC's Executive Director - Steve Grace

The world that today’s PLC graduates face if far more global, more technologically advanced and certainly as ethically challenged as any period in history.  The globalization of business, society, and even academia is a dominating factor both in undergraduate education and in the careers our students will enter after CU.  

Companies like Apple, Google and Facebook, have rendered technology a ubiquitous part of life.  And while the growth of social entrepreneurship and social responsibility portends a positive trend, few would argue that our economy has not suffered from the incompetence and greed of some (many?) in the business sector.

Programs like PLC are not immune to the changes resulting from globalization, from technology and from within society.  As we move into our fourth decade, we must be positioned to help our students with the challenges brought on by the new realities of our economy, with understanding and utilizing technology in their fields of interest, and in continuing to emphasize ethical leaders across multiple disciplines. 

PLC’s first year curriculum continues to focus on in-depth knowledge, problem solving and critical thinking skills.  Second year tackles more complex leadership challenges in our Multi Level Issues class and then Global Issues in Leadership completes our academic coursework.  At the same time, our program continues to emphasize experiential learning including community-based and service learning.  And we are rightfully proud of the prominent speakers who play a key roll complementing each of our professors.  The biggest immediate change you might notice is that the program now offers our students more academic flexibility after first year.  Without upsetting the traditional cohort, we recognized that more and more of our students were unable to take classes in sequence going into year two.  Our hope is the added benefit of more flexibility will keep more PLCers active in the program and create cross-year cohorts and connections, where none previously existed.

Finally, as part of our effort to unite the entire PLC student body on campus, programs for third and fourth year students in career and academic counseling are being expanded this fall, as well as purely fun, social events for all four years.  And there are many ideas moving forward to insure a stronger connection with you, PLC Alums, and our undergrads.  

PLC is engaged in assisting our students to serve society through their careers and personal lives and to prepare them to be compelling and ethical leaders.  The work within the organization moves forward and hopefully keeps pace with the world around us.

It is a continuous and seemingly never-ending process… and on the seventh day we’ll rest.

Thanks for your support.