Funds to Help Students Learn Outside of Class
Thanks to charitable grants of $1 million, Pitzer College will move to educate its students through “direct experience in resolving social problems,” said college President Marilyn Chapin Massey on Wednesday.
The two grants of $500,000, from the W.M. Keck Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation, will fund the creation of the Center for California Cultural and Social Issues.
Rather than focusing strictly on policy, the center will solidify Pitzer’s relationship with local public schools, governments, and organizations. Experiential learning--work outside the classroom--is a central goal of the all-undergraduate college, Massey said.
“We have about 250 students doing something in service learning, out of a college of 700,” Massey said. “Our mission is to educate our students for social responsibility.”
The grants will also enable the college to track the results of community involvement over time, which was previously impossible because of uncertain funding, Massey said.
The W.M. Keck Foundation and James Irvine Foundation have given several grants to the Claremont family of colleges over the past two years.
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