College of Idaho

OUR MISSION.
The College of Idaho is a small, private, residential liberal arts college that prepares students to lead productive and fulfilling lives. We offer a living and learning experience that engages students and equips them with skills and understanding necessry to flourish in our rapidly changing, diverse, and technologically informed world. We emphasize frequent and meaningful interaction with faculty, staff, and administration, the exploration of challenging ideas, and a well-rounded course of study in the liberal arts disciplines-the fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, and natural sciences- enriched by preprofessional and interdisicplinary programs in tandem with co-curricular student life experiences. On our hsitoric campus, as well as through internships, service opportunities and off-campus study, students become members of a community centered on exacting scholarship and life-long learning. We are committed to excellence in academic instruction and scholarship, and to the values of community, integrity, leadership, and service. Through these commitments, we strive to help students develop socially, physically, creative, and intellectually as whole persons.
THE PEAK PROGRAM
With more officially designated wilderness than any state in the contiguous United States, Idaho is a land of peaks: Mt. Borah, the Seven Devils, the Selway Crags, the BigHorn Crags, Rhodes Peak. The College of Idaho proudly offers a distinctive curriculum - The PEAK Program- that reflects the physical geography of Idaho while preparing students for climbing higher to see farther.
PEAK is a curriculum simple in concept but profound in its reach. An acronym for "Professional, Ethical, Articulate, and Knowledgeable," PEAK challenges students to study broadly across professional foundations, social sciences, humanities, fine arts, mathematics, and the natural sciences. It recognizes that a sturdy foundation is best for withstanding unanticipated gusts from a changing world.
As a liberal arts college with professional programs, The College of Idaho prepares students to lead fulfilling and productive lives. The PEAK Program offers a curriculum design and college experience that distinctively educates and ensures that every graduate of The College of Idaho leaves with a set of professional skills in addition to a broad and deep liberal arts education. With the PEAK Program students design their own combination of major and minor programs across four areas that will make them better prepared, more confident, more attractive to employers, graduate schools, and pre-professional programs than graduates of the traditional distribution systems common at most colleges. PEAK is founded on the principle of student choice rather than pre-determined course requirements. Under PEAK students will pursue
roughly one-third in exploration of courses outside the student's four chosen programs. Students will work closely with faculty advisors to design, revise, and implement their individualized academic plans.
Whatever the future holds for graduates of the 21st century, accelerating change is a primary reality. The PEAK Program offers a living and learning experience that engages students and equips them with the skills and understanding to flourish in our rapidly changing, diverse, and technologically informed world. As employees, students must be ready to change careers several times over their working lives. As citizens, they must govern in a world that will be radically different from the world of their youth. Their change is the norm, both breadth and depth of study are requisites for success.