LIGHT Program

Expand your knowledge and perspective by engaging with cultures around the world, and develop your spiritual growth by letting faith light the way.

Lipscomb’s LIGHT Program prepares students to live lives of active collaboration and engagement with communities and cultures all over. Through our globally-focused curriculum and experiential learning, you will not only develop respectful attentiveness to diversity, but also increase your understanding of cultural practices, systems and institutional structures. Most importantly, you will respond to the call to love your neighbor as yourself.

Embedded in our General Education curriculum are two of the most impactful courses of the entire LIGHT Program: the Lipscomb Experience and Engagements. Beyond these two foundational and mandatory courses, you will have the opportunity to take additional LIGHT courses developed within your major or minor program, or participate in LIGHT-designated events. Students interested in becoming LIGHT scholars will experience both curricular and extracurricular learning environments throughout their time at Lipscomb, which will culminate in the recognition and distinction of their scholarship at commencement.
 

Students in Bison Square.

Students relax in Bison Square.

Illuminate Global Engagement

The Belltower

Lipscomb Experience

During your first semester as a freshman at Lipscomb, you will be required to take Lipscomb Experience, an introductory course to university-level critical thinking and cultural engagement. In this course, you will dive into discussions on what it means to receive a liberal arts education from a Christian perspective, within small groups that develop mentoring relationships, provoke thoughtful, important questions and hone a common set of transferable skills. Students who do not finish this course with a C or better must retake it the subsequent spring semester.

Teacher instructing class

Engagements

Lipscomb’s Engagements course is multidisciplinary, co-taught by faculty and professionals from a variety of disciplines. In this class, you will investigate a particular theme using insights, methods and habits of thought from the liberal arts, the Bible and other academic disciplines. You will learn the many connections between your major and the overarching theme of the course through hands-on, project-based learning. In addition to the LIGHT Scholarship program, Engagements meets the requirement for an elective Bible course.

Student studying

LIGHT in Major/Minor Curriculums

LIGHT courses are part of the graduation requirements for some majors. Students who are not required to take LIGHT courses may elect to take ones developed within their major or minor, or create a contract for a special additional project to be added to a major course. If you choose to do so, you will work with a faculty member and the director of the LIGHT Program to design a project that meets the outcomes required for LIGHT courses in your major.

Students study outside Bennett Campus Center

Become a LIGHT Scholar

If you want to take advantage of the opportunity to use intercultural experiences and global learning to make a difference through your unique calling, consider becoming a Lipscomb LIGHT Scholar. In a campus environment that celebrates cultures near and far, you will participate in intercultural activities to receive credit that will ultimately be recognized with distinction at commencement.

Advisory Council

  • Cori Mathis, Director of the LIGHT Program
  • Andy Bleiler, College of Entertainment and the Arts
  • Terry Briley, College of Bible
  • Rebecca Doom, Library
  • Fort Gwinn, College of Engineering
  • Mark Jobe, College of Business
  • Brandi Kellett, Assistant Director of General Education
  • Kelly Kidder, College of Liberal Arts and Science
  • Emily Medlock, College of Education
  • Dave Morgan, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
  • Chris Simmons, College of Computing and Technology
  • L. Carolina Santiago Sota, College of Professional Studies
  • Emily Stutzman Jones, College of Leadership and Public Service
  • Melissa Swann, Special Assistant to the Provost and Director of General Education
  • Kathy Williams, College of Pharmacy and Health Science