Academics
Real Experience
OWU's Career Connection office helps students secure meaningful internships from New York to DC to Silicon Valley. Many lead to jobs.
Career Connection
Hands-on Research
OWU students in every field work with faculty mentors on research projects that can lead to publications - and grad school acceptances.
OWU Connection
Individual Attention
With no large lecture halls at OWU, most classes have fewer than 20 students. And they're designed for 21st-century students.
Reimagined and Remade
Go Global
We believe every Ohio Wesleyan student should be immersed in new cultures and new environments.
Go GlobalGet ready for tomorrow. Ohio Wesleyan faculty have reimagined what a college education for the 2020s and beyond should be. Of course, you will enjoy small classes and and individual attention from faculty who continue OWU's long tradition of great teaching. And now, they've redesigned OWU's entire curriculum to prepare students for tomorrow's challenges and tomorrow's careers. This is a new day for transformational learning!
OWU faculty designed our academic program to help students develop the skills to probe complex global problems, spark insights and innovations across fields of study, communicate with everyone everywhere, analyze concepts and data to separate truth from falsehood, and live a fulfilling and productive life.
And you can choose from more than 70 majors! We also work with students to broaden their skills and opportunities with a second major. More than one-fourth of OWU students graduate with multiple majors, one of the highest percentages in the nation.
Academic Program
OWU's academic program is built on a framework of three components that will shape the educational experience of every Ohio Wesleyan student.
First-Year Seminar
Every first-year OWU student takes the interdisciplinary seminar "How to Change the World." With such an ambitious title, the full-credit course is designed to be the perfect introduction to thinking big and embracing the power of the liberal arts.
The course centers on complex, widespread, intractable issues and "wicked problems" that connect liberal arts skills with real-world application. Faculty focus on helping students develop skills like information literacy and critical reading, which help them build a foundation for success at OWU and give them lifelong skills that will help them become active citizens and critical thinkers.
Core Skills, Not Checklists
The old-school list of required "gen eds" was a checklist based on academic divisions. Students were required to check off, say, three classes in natural sciences, three in humanities, one in the arts, and so on.
The OWU model, instead, focuses on what students need: skills to think, speak, and act. We help students build nine core skills that align with the traits that surveys show employers value most highly. And they are critical for being an informed and contributing democratic, global citizen.
Every OWU course is designed to help students develop at least one of these core skills: reason quantitatively; question scientifically; think aesthetically; listen, imagine, and understand; write and speak effectively; learn a second language; examine inequities; engage diversity; and act responsibly.
The OWU Connection
The OWU Connection is Ohio Wesleyan's signature program for hands-on learning beyond the classroom. It provides vast opportunities for students to experience mentored research, internships, academic-related global travel, and service learning. The program is OWU's commitment that every student will Think Big, Do Good, Go Global, and Get Real. These hands-on experiences can change students forever - and lead to a first job or impressive graduate school placement.
Every student completes OWU Connection experiences based on their own interests and goals. The experiences could include an internship, a research project with a faculty mentor, or a Connection-funded project overseas. Your OWU Connection experiences are designed for you alone.
Students then share their experiences at the annual OWU Connection Conference. The entire campus community devotes the day to sharing the impact and insight from Connection opportunities.
Ideas, Insight, Imagination
Only at Ohio Wesleyan do students pack a lecture hall to hear some of their favorite professors teach a compelling lesson in just 3(ish) minutes. OWU's annual i³ (iQubed) program is one of the university's most popular events of the year, where students select nine faculty members to deliver mini-lectures on the topic of their choice in about three minutes. The event celebrates the power of in-person teaching from experts who are dedicated to their field and to the art of teaching.
In other brief videos here, learn more about specific areas of OWU's renowned academic program.
News About OWU Faculty
Student Success Initiatives Making "Tremendous Progress"
Ohio Wesleyan is on a mission to identify and eliminate impediments to students remaining enrolled and persisting to graduation. Two years into the all-hands-on-deck…
More information
Siglo Latinx
Ohio Wesleyan Professor Earns Grant, Collaborates on New Line of Spanish Theater Research
More information
A Look Inside OWU Academics
Alumni Connections— Alumni frequently come back to share their knowledge with students.
Alumni Connections
Alumni frequently come back to share their knowledge with students.
Summer Scholarship & Research Symposium— Students join the 10-week Summer Scholarship & Research Program, working with faculty on original projects and presenting at the annual Patricia Belt Conrades Summer Scholarship & Research Symposium.
Summer Scholarship & Research Symposium
Students join the 10-week Summer Scholarship & Research Program, working with faculty on original projects and presenting at the annual Patricia Belt Conrades Summer Scholarship & Research Symposium.
Average Class: 14 Students— OWU's small classes ensure close interaction between students and their professors. Pictured is a Spanish class.
Average Class: 14 Students
OWU's small classes ensure close interaction between students and their professors. Pictured is a Spanish class.
Travel-Learning Courses— Spend a semester in the classroom learning about a topic of interest and then hit the road for a related travel experience. Led by your professors, Travel-Learning Courses link academics with real-world experience.
Travel-Learning Courses
Spend a semester in the classroom learning about a topic of interest and then hit the road for a related travel experience. Led by your professors, Travel-Learning Courses link academics with real-world experience.
Active Learning— Education professor Sarah Kaka moves among small groups of students working on a class project.
Active Learning
Education professor Sarah Kaka moves among small groups of students working on a class project.
Kraus Nature Preserve— Students and faculty conduct research and conduct some classes at Kraus Nature Preserve.
Kraus Nature Preserve
Students and faculty conduct research and conduct some classes at Kraus Nature Preserve.
Study Spaces— OWU has beautiful study spots tucked all over campus. Take some time to find your favorite!
Study Spaces
OWU has beautiful study spots tucked all over campus. Take some time to find your favorite!
A Liberal Arts Education— OWU encourages integration of knowledge across disciplines.This class combined Biology, Mathematics, and research in the Virgin Islands.
A Liberal Arts Education
OWU encourages integration of knowledge across disciplines.This class combined Biology, Mathematics, and research in the Virgin Islands.
Art Spots— Art students may create a career portfolio, spend a semester with the New York Arts Program or have their work shown at the Ross Art Museum.
Art Spots
Art students may create a career portfolio, spend a semester with the New York Arts Program or have their work shown at the Ross Art Museum.
Department Contact Info
Location
Office of the Provost
University Hall 108
Delaware, OH 43015
University Hall 108
Delaware, OH 43015