At Dickinson College, the liberal arts are not arrogant or privileged, but hungry and progressive.

Dickinson was the first college to be chartered after the colonies became the United States of America. Faithful to the 1783 words of college founder Dr. Benjamin Rush, Dickinson remains a "college for the education of youth in the learned and foreign languages, the useful arts, sciences and literature."

From our collaborative "workshop" approach to student-faculty research to internships, fieldwork and study abroad, a Dickinson education is useful. Our students choose from 40 major areas of study, ranging from fine arts to earth sciences, from humanities to social sciences. The college offers an array of other academic options, including specific certificates (such as women's studies, secondary education and law and public service), independent research, double majors, and self-constructed majors. With a 12:1 student/faculty ratio, the college is determined to provide individual attention to each student.

Throughout the history of the college, the connection between classroom instruction and the world beyond our stately limestone walls has remained central to Dickinson's mission. The college is a distinctive community of scholars, one that is devoted to engaging students in the world around them and encouraging them to travel beyond what is comfortable, whether curricular or geographical, local or international, personal or communal. It is a community determined to not only develop distinct and confident voices among its students, but also to give them the tools they need to become productive citizens.

In short, Dickinson encourages its students to cross borders-to traverse the boundaries of exploration that have traditionally defined America's student life. Take our commitment to global education, for example. Dickinson offers instruction in 12 foreign languages, operates 13 study centers abroad, and graduates proportionately more foreign language majors than any other college or university in the United States.

Dickinson was the only private liberal-arts college in a group of eight institutions cited in 2001 by the American Council on Education for its exemplary global education programs. In 2002, the college was chosen by NAFSA: Association of International Educators as one of the six institutions in the country that has best internationalized its campus. And U.S. News and World Report ranks Dickinson fifth in the nation for the quality of its study-abroad programs.

At some point during their four years at Dickinson, about two-thirds of our students will study abroad. They encounter cultures, values, beliefs and attitudes different from their own and develop a new self-awareness through study all over the world, including programs in Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, India, Cameroon, Japan, China, Korea and Australia.

Closer to home, Dickinson has partnerships with Spelman College in Atlanta and Xavier University in New Orleans. These partnerships have included exchange programs with the two historically black institutions and the yearlong Crossing Borders program, which brings students from all three schools to work and learn together at Dickinson's study-abroad site at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, West Africa.

On campus, the college's Community Studies Center, the only such center housed within an American liberal-arts college, is on the cutting edge of interdisciplinary work. The Center encourages fieldwork and community-oriented research by students and faculty. It crosses academic borders, drawing students and faculty to the American Mosaic program, a semester devoted to close fieldwork study of a community in the region, and to the Global Mosaic program, which allows students to conduct field research in Patagonia, Argentina.

Dickinson is a pioneer in the classroom, too. "Workshop science" was first developed here. Our science and math classes are taught in a small, hands-on learning environment and are grounded in student-faculty research, including our groundbreaking interdisciplinary programs in bioinformatics and archaeology.

Our commitment to crossing borders, to giving students experiences outside the mainstream, fosters the dynamic, adaptable and intelligent individuals-the Dickinsonians-who become leading contributors to their professions and communities.

Dickinson strives to engage its students in the diversity of America and of the world with support from a strong campus community. These enriching and motivating experiences prepare our students for lives of leadership and accomplishment in service to society.

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Dickinson's faculty is caring and committed, achieving ever-greater visibility in the world at large.

Our faculty has an extraordinary level of commitment to and engagement with students; in every department, teaching and research partnerships with students help prepare them for their life's work. Across all the majors, faculty members go out of their way to connect students with real-life, experiential learning situations.

Dickinson's strategic plan identifies "Crossing Borders" as a defining characteristic of the college. This, of course, means our exceptional global education program, but also denotes a commitment to crossing interdisciplinary boundaries. The college takes this commitment seriously and takes it into consideration in hiring, tenuring and promoting faculty. The college observes rigorously the fundamental principal of academic freedom and demands respect for civil dialogue and reasoned exchange.

If you want to work with students, if you want colleagues who will know you and your expertise as you will know theirs, and if you want the freedom to work across disciplines to discover new possibilities, consider Dickinson.

To find out how you can contribute to our distinctive community, contact the Human Resource Services office at (717) 245-1305 or visit our Web site, www.Dickinson.edu/hrservices/.