Learning to Lead

We forge ethical leaders with the skill, compassion, and vision to create a more just and sustainable world. We build community in our classrooms, our clubs and teams.

 

Women’s Leadership Core Curriculum

Sweet Briar’s unique curriculum is one of the reasons the college is ranked the most innovative in Virginia and one of the most innovative in the country. 

In the core you’ll develop communications skills, learn to sift through evidence, and gain an understanding of diverse cultural and disciplinary perspectives. You’ll look squarely upon the problems our world faces and get empowered to craft solutions. 

CORE 110 — Design Thinking
  

Prerequisite: Limited to and required for all incoming first-year and new transfer students.


A team of faculty members from varied disciplines will introduce students to the design-thinking process, and its application to a range of problems from local through global scale. Faculty will show how design thinking is expressed in different disciplines, and at the end of the course students will engage in the process for themselves in different disciplinary contexts, and engage in a multidisciplinary endeavor. This course introduces our leadership core, which will produce students who are inquisitive when approaching new challenges; empathetic, informed, and fearless when framing potential solutions to those challenges; flexible, organized, and collaborative when designing and implementing solutions; articulate and confident when communicating those solutions; focused upon the creation of well- executed products; and perceptively self-critical when reviewing the effectiveness of their own work.

CORE 120 — The Mindful Writer 
  
A workshop-based writing course that helps students become confident and effective readers and writers. Using the New Yorker magazine as the primary text — each student will have an individual ten-week subscription — students will learn to read carefully, identify the style and structure of individual pieces, from profiles to reviews to political and cultural commentary, and write several pieces of their own, practicing a range of rhetorical methods while also conducting research, crafting persuasive arguments, and producing multiple drafts through careful and sustained revision.
CORE 130 — Women and Gender in the World
  
A multidisciplinary study of the social, cultural, and political issues that influence women in societies across the world. The course introduces theoretical perspectives and social contexts for the diverse challenges that confront contemporary women.
CORE 140 — Sustainable Systems
  
This class introduces the concept of sustainability by emphasizing the interconnectedness of different systems (e.g., environmental, cultural, economic). Case studies from around the world will demonstrate the importance of understanding both cultural and political contexts when developing innovative solutions to intractable environmental problems.
CORE 150 — Creative Thinking and Practice
  
Core 150 is satisfied by a variety of courses offered throughout the arts. These interdisciplinary courses help students understand and develop creative processes through the study and practice of the arts. Students will be exposed to works of art in two genres, and discover how those works came into being, as well as develop works of their own. In order to understand how a variety of artists think about art and culture, students in courses that count for Core 150 will be required to attend readings, lectures, exhibitions, and performances by visiting artists, including Babcock and Gager Concert Series events, open studios and salons with Fellows from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Common Read presentations, and gallery events and openings.
CORE 160 — STEM and Society 
  
This course is designed to empower students to develop evidence-based opinions, and make informed decisions, about societal issues related to science and technology. After becoming familiar with the scientific method, the basic methodology common to all good scientific research, students will learn to distinguish between legitimate and bogus results by thinking clearly and critically about the claims of scientists and charlatans alike.
CORE 170 — Decisions in a Data-driven World 
  
The volume of data available to help us make decisions is increasing at a staggering rate. How do we sort through data to find what is relevant and useful? How do we evaluate, organize and interpret information to make good decisions? This course will focus on data-rich topics drawn from disparate fields such as health, science and technology, and political science to develop the ability to reason and work with data, as well as understand and present arguments supported by quantitative evidence.
CORE 180 — Dollars and Sense 
  
Women leading in all ways and all walks of life need a solid understanding of financial topics. Three major categories will be covered in this course to provide that: first, broad economic concepts, which will provide a foundational understanding; second, organizational financial mechanisms; and finally financial literacy for the individual (e.g., understanding credit and personal investing). Each category will include hands-on learning.
CORE 210 — Contemporary Ethical Questions 
  
Global climate change, human migration, and technological manipulation of genes all present pressing ethical questions for which no clear-cut answers exist. This course helps students address such complex issues by introducing them to major branches of philosophical ethics and then helping them apply these diverse perspectives to propose solutions. All sections initially follow a common syllabus of theoretical readings; then each section concentrates on contemporary ethical dilemmas in particular spheres (e.g., medicine, business, law, etc.).
CORE 300 — The Consequential Citizen
  
A culminating core capstone about how power/influence operate within human social and political structures. Students will apply these insights to their own futures and reflect on how the core experience helped them develop the skills and frameworks they need to launch themselves into their post-collegiate roles as leader-citizens.

 

We create the community we want to see

Eight out of 10 Sweet Briar students hold leadership roles in student organizations, twice the rate of other colleges. We are birders, writers, crafters, and coders. We are Republicans and Democrats, internationalists and mental health advocates. Through our multicultural communities, we celebrate our identities and create connections. These bonds stay with us long after we have left this special place and time. 

Sweet Briar students visit a local indoor rock gym.

Sweet Briar students visit a local indoor rock gym.

Experience hiking and backpacking opportunities.

Experience hiking and backpacking opportunities.

Hike through gorgeous scenery with your peers.

Hike through gorgeous scenery with your peers.

Outdoor Program

On our campus, in the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond, we learn to lead in and be awed by nature. From back country and kayaking skills to spelunking, climbing, hiking, and canoeing, we adventure

Hunter Trials.

Hunter Trials.

Sweet Briar Field Hockey.

Sweet Briar Field Hockey.

Sweet Briar Lacrosse.

Sweet Briar Lacrosse.

Sweet Briar Soccer.

Sweet Briar Soccer.

Students have acres to ride.

Students have acres to ride.

Athletics and Riding

On the field and off, in the ring and in the barn, we challenge ourselves and work together.