Virginia Wesleyan College
Encyclopedia
Virginia Wesleyan College is a small Methodist liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...

 college on the border of Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...

 and Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

 offering a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in many disciplines and has added Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 programs as well. Virginia Wesleyan College boasts a strong student-to-faculty ratio and has shown steady campus growth for several years.

Academics

Virginia Wesleyan offers majors in a wider range of fields than many small liberal arts colleges, ranging from traditional liberal arts programs to more pre-professional programs. Students at Virginia Wesleyan may major in:
  • American Studies
    American studies
    American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...

  • Art
    Art
    Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

  • Biology
    Biology
    Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

  • Chemistry
    Chemistry
    Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

  • Classical Studies
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
    Computer science
    Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

  • Criminal Justice
    Criminal justice
    Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...

  • Earth and Environmental Sciences
    Environmental science
    Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical and biological sciences, to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems...

  • English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

  • Environmental Studies
    Environmental studies
    Environmental studies is the academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. It is a broad interdisciplinary field of study that includes the natural environment, built environment, and the sets of relationships between them...

  • French
    French language
    French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

  • German
    German language
    German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

  • Health and Human Services
  • History
    History
    History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

  • International Studies
    International studies
    International Studies generally refers to the specific University Degrees and courses which are concerned with the study of ‘the major political, economic, social, cultural and sacral issues that dominate the international agenda’...

  • Latin
    Latin
    Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

  • Mathematics
    Mathematics
    Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

  • Music
    Music
    Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

  • Philosophy
    Philosophy
    Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

  • Political Science
    Political science
    Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

  • Psychology
    Psychology
    Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

  • Recreation and Leisure Studies
    Leisure studies
    Leisure studies is a branch of the social sciences that focuses on understanding and analyzing leisure. Tourism and recreation are common topics of leisure research....

  • Religious Studies
  • Social Sciences
    Social sciences
    Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

  • Social Studies
    Social studies
    Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...

  • Sociology
    Sociology
    Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

  • Spanish
    Spanish language
    Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

  • Theatre
    Theatre
    Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

  • Theatre and English
  • Women's and Gender Studies
    Women's studies
    Women's studies, also known as feminist studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field which explores politics, society and history from an intersectional, multicultural women's perspective...



Students at Virginia Wesleyan benefit from the individualized attention. and close mentoring relationships typical of small liberal arts colleges, developed through a number of distinctive programs. Each first-year student at Virginia Wesleyan enrolls in a First-Year Seminar that focuses on intensive exploration of a specialized topic, in a class no larger than fifteen students. Another recognized feature of the academic program at the college is its Winter Session, a three-week term between the fall and spring semesters that offers innovative and experimental courses, including travel courses to locations ranging from Belize to New Zealand. Students may also participate in the Honors and Scholars Program and the PORTfolio Program, which promotes the exploration of the liberal arts through real-world applications.

The college has recently begun a major commitment to making Living & Learning Communities available to first-year students. In these communities, groups of fifteen first-year students, all of whom live in the same residence hall, immerse themselves in intensive study of a topic of mutual interest, dedicating two of their first-semester courses to that subject. The fact that the students in each community live in the same residence hall allows for opportunity to integrate these studies more thoroughly into the fabric of campus life, providing for group activities, external speakers, and out-of-class activities focused on the chosen topic. Recent and current topics of Living & Learning Communities include American Politics, Women in Science, and the Environment.

The college has also begun a transition from a 3 credit system to a 4 credit system. Under the old system, the students participated in 3 hours of one class per week totaling 5 classes for a total of 15 credit hours per semester. This system was amended in Fall 2011 to include an extra hour per class and to remove one class from the work load. This change was made as a hope for improvement in individual class experience. With one less class for the students schedule, the students could put more focus into 4 classes. Professors are given discretion as to how to add the 4th hour. The 4th hour ranges from extended class time to outer class projects.

Distinctions

The college earned distinction for ten major programs in the 20th edition of Rugg's Recommendations on Colleges.
The major programs for which it earned distinction are:
  • Biology
    Biology
    Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

  • Communications and Journalism
    Journalism
    Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

  • MBE (Management
    Management
    Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

    , Business
    Business
    A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

     and Economics
    Economics
    Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

    )
  • Political Science
    Political science
    Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

  • Pre-law
    Pre-law
    In the United States, pre-law refers to any course of study taken by an undergraduate in preparation for study at a law school.The American Bar Association requires law schools that it approves to require at least a bachelor's degree for North American students for admission...

  • Pre-medical
    Pre-medical
    Pre-medical is a term used to describe a track an undergraduate student in the United States pursues prior to becoming a medical student...

  • Pre-dental
  • Psychology
    Psychology
    Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

  • Recreation and Leisure Studies
    Leisure studies
    Leisure studies is a branch of the social sciences that focuses on understanding and analyzing leisure. Tourism and recreation are common topics of leisure research....

  • Religious Studies
    Religious studies
    Religious studies is the academic field of multi-disciplinary, secular study of religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.While theology attempts to...

  • Sociology
    Sociology
    Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...


Greek life

North-American Interfraternity Conference
North-American Interfraternity Conference
The North-American Interfraternity Conference , is an association of collegiate men's fraternities that was formally organized in 1910, although it began on November 27, 1909. The power of the organization rests in a House of Delegates where each member fraternity is represented by a single delegate...

 Fraternities:
  • Phi Kappa Tau
    Phi Kappa Tau
    Phi Kappa Tau is a U.S. national collegiate fraternity.-History:Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity was founded in the Union Literary Society Hall of Miami University's Old Main Building in Oxford, Ohio on March 17, 1906...

  • Sigma Nu
    Sigma Nu
    Sigma Nu is an undergraduate, college fraternity with chapters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Sigma Nu was founded in 1869 by three cadets at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia...

  • Kappa Alpha Order
    Kappa Alpha Order
    Kappa Alpha Order is a social fraternity and fraternal order. Kappa Alpha Order has 124 active chapters, 3 provisional chapters, and 2 commissions...



National Panhellenic Conference
National Panhellenic Conference
The National Panhellenic Conference , founded in 1902, is an umbrella organization for 26 national women's sororities.Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek-letter society of college women and alumnae...

 Sororities:
  • Alpha Sigma Alpha
    Alpha Sigma Alpha
    Alpha Sigma Alpha is a US national sorority founded on November 15, 1901 at the Virginia State Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia...

  • Phi Sigma Sigma
    Phi Sigma Sigma
    Phi Sigma Sigma , colloquially known as "Phi Sig," was the first collegiate nonsectarian fraternity, welcoming women of all faiths and backgrounds...

  • Sigma Sigma Sigma
    Sigma Sigma Sigma
    Sigma Sigma Sigma , also known as Tri Sigma, is a national American women’s sorority with membership of more than 100,000 members. Sigma Sigma Sigma is a member of the National Panhellenic Conference and hosts chapters on more than 110 college campuses and 89 alumnae chapters in communities all...



National Panhellenic Council Sororities:
  • Alpha Kappa Alpha
    Alpha Kappa Alpha
    Alpha Kappa Alpha is the first Greek-lettered sorority established and incorporated by African American college women. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of nine students, led by Ethel Hedgeman Lyle...

  • Delta Sigma Theta
    Delta Sigma Theta
    Delta Sigma Theta is a non-profit Greek-lettered sorority of college-educated women who perform public service and place emphasis on the African American community. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority was founded on January 13, 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women at Howard University...

     (Dormant)

Campus

Virginia Wesleyan is separated into four different villages over a 300 acres (1.2 km²) tract. Villages I and II offer combined living-learning environments on the Jeffersonian model, in which dormitory space, classrooms, and faculty and staff offices share the same buildings.

In the summer and fall of 2008, the college's Hofheimer Library underwent a major renovation and modernization that included expanded wireless internet access, twenty-four hour study space, and an art gallery. Soon after renovations were also done to the school's cafeteria during the winter break of 2009. These renovations included a pizza and pasta bar, an improved salad station, a dessert bar, and new seating.

Athletics

Virginia Wesleyan competes in Division III of the NCAA, as a member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference
Old Dominion Athletic Conference
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference is an NCAA Division III athletic conference. Its member schools are located primarily in Virginia, with other members in North Carolina and Washington, DC. Only the American Southwest Conference in Texas is larger in Division III. -History:The conference was...

. The men's basketball team won the national championship in 2006, and the following year returned to the championship game, which they lost. The women's soccer team made it to the final four in 2006 after winning the ODAC tournament for the first time in program history.

Men's Sports:
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Cheerleading
  • Cross Country
  • Golf
  • Lacrosse
  • Soccer
  • Tennis
  • Track & Field


Women's Sports:
  • Basketball
  • Cheerleading
  • Cross Country
  • Field Hockey
  • Lacrosse
  • Soccer
  • Softball
  • Tennis
  • Track & Field
  • Volleyball

PORTfolio Program

The PORTfolio Program is a selective four-year curricular innovation that allows students to extend and apply their in-class education through progressive learning experiences and off-campus opportunities. The program is open to any incoming first year student and can supplement any major by engaging the student in reflection, reaction and adjustment of her/his personal and educational and career goals. PORTfolio students chronicle their journey, self-discovery, experiences, skills and growth continually through their four years by developing an electronic portfolio posted on the web. An integrated set of specially designed liberal arts seminars, Winter Session courses, co-curricular activities and experiential learning opportunities, offer our students a distinctive path to connect the best of a liberal education with real-world applications. PORTfolio is one of the most exciting new developments in higher education in many years and this unique program is only available at Virginia Wesleyan College.

Realizing that today's students will spend all of their working lives in the new millennium, the PORTfolio Program prepares students for long term success by emphasizing the vital ties between the liberal arts and the world. It shows students that the liberal arts are both enriching in terms of personal development and enabling in terms of future careers. Our focus is to share the liberal arts perspectives on the world and encourage the ability to question, deal with change, solve problems, and utilize critical thinking, working independently or in a group. The curriculum of the PORTfolio Program is designed so that participants will explore themselves—their analytical, practical and creative intelligences as well as their strengths in leadership and scholarship. They will explore the community (in the broadest sense of the word), the history and tradition of the liberal arts and the independent American college. The program also provides opportunities for the perfecting of oral, written and technological communication skills.

Notable alumni

  • Randy Peele
    Randy Peele
    -External links:*...

     - head coach of men's basketball at Winthrop University
    Winthrop University
    Winthrop University is a public, four-year liberal arts university in Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA. In 2006-07, Winthrop University had an enrollment of 6,292 students. The University has been recognized as South Carolina's top-rated university according to evaluations conducted by the South...

  • Bob Valvano
    Bob Valvano
    Bob Valvano is an American sportscaster based in Louisville, Kentucky.During the college-basketball season, he is an analyst for ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Plus, mostly covering Big East basketball. When not doing those games, Valvano is the color analyst for University of Louisville men's basketball...

     - American sportscaster
  • Keller Williams
    Keller Williams
    Keller Williams is an American musician from Fredericksburg, Virginia, who began performing in the early 1990s. He is also known by the names K-Dub or just Keller, when performing. Williams' music combines elements of bluegrass, folk, alternative rock, reggae, electronica/dance, jazz, funk, and...

     - Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter.
  • James Ross Reese - Assistant Director, Securities and Exchange Commission.
  • David B. Green - Assistant Treasuer, The George Washington University.

External links

  • VWC.edu: The Virginia Wesleyan College homepage
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