Mission Statement

Holy Family College, a ministry of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, offers education in the liberal arts and professions through graduate, undergraduate, and non-degree programs. As a Catholic college Holy Family seeks direction and inspiration from the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, affirms the values of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and witnesses to the dignity of each person and the oneness of the human family. Holy Family College educates students to assume life-long responsibilities towards God, society, and self.

The following core values inform the college as its seeks to carry out its mission.

FAMILY  Holy Family College welcomes and cares for students, faculty, and staff as members of a diverse but interconnected family. A community united by a common mission, the college promotes an atmosphere of mutual concern and attention to the spiritual, intellectual, social, emotional, and physical needs of all those whom it serves.

RESPECT Holy Family College affirms the dignity of the human person through openness to multiple points of view, personalized attention, and collaborative dialogue in the learning process and in the interaction among members of the college community. The college seeks to instill appreciation of and respect for differences so that its graduates can function successfully in multicultural contexts.

INTEGRITY  Intent upon forming persons of integrity who recognize the importance of life-long learning, Holy Family College advocates free and conscientious pursuit of truth and the responsible use of knowledge. It bases education upon a foundation in the liberal arts that highlights the humanities and the natural and social sciences. In keeping with the teachings of the   Catholic Church, concern for moral values and social justice guides the college in designing programs and activities.

SERVICE and RESPONSIBILITY   Holy Family College incorporates its motto, teneor votis ("I am bound by my responsibilities"), into curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular programs. Reflecting this motto, educational experiences at the college apply theory to practice and course content to serving human needs. The college educates individuals to become competent professionals and responsible citizens.

LEARNING  Holy Family College seeks to instill in its students a passion for truth and a commitment to seeking wisdom. It promotes values-based education, creative scholarship, informed and imaginative use of research and technology, and practical learning opportunities such as cooperative-education and internship programs. The college seeks to strengthen ethical, logical, and creative thinking; to develop effective communication skills; to nurture an aesthetic sense; and to deepen global, social, and historical awareness.

VISION Holy Family College envisions learning as a dynamic and fruitful exchange between traditional sources of wisdom and contemporary developments in knowledge. Throughout the teaching and learning process the college seeks to embody Christian philosophical and theological perspectives. It offers an education grounded in a Judeo-Christian worldview that serves as a foundation upon which to address contemporary problems and to build a vision for the future.

(Approved by the Holy Family College Board of Trustees, November 2000)

Previous Mission Statement

Goal 1: To foster a collegiate community that affirms the dignity of the human person and witnesses to a living Christian faith.

Objective 1: To provide human services to meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff. This is accomplished through continuing education programs, a comprehensive advising system, library services, a freshman orientation program, counseling services, a career guidance center, academic support programs, health services, recreational and athletic activities and programs, financial assistance, and publications.

Objective 2: To provide religious and spiritual services through a campus ministry program that includes worship, guidance, and charitable works. Among these services are daily liturgy, ecumenical prayer services, retreats, and specific projects on peace and justice.

Objective 3: To focus on the needs of the individual student by attempting to achieve and maintain a student/faculty ratio that promotes optimal personalized instruction, dialogue, and collaboration.

Goal 2: To promote by means of the liberal arts the formation of integrated persons who possess knowledge of God, self, and the human family, and who nourish an awareness of their corresponding responsibilities.

Objective 1: To ensure a firm foundation in the liberal arts for all students through a core liberal arts program and interdisciplinary studies.

Objective 2: To ensure that students encounter the values of Christian humanism through studies in philosophy and religion.

Objective 3: To develop studentsÕ understanding of the theoretical and empirical nature of the natural sciences and to deepen their awareness of the impact of natural science and technology on individuals and society.

Objective 4: To foster studentsÕ understanding of human behavior and the systems of society by studying the social and behavioral sciences.

Objective 5: To exemplify the collegeÕs motto, teneor votis (ÒI am bound by my responsibilitiesÓ), as a principle of living by challenging the studentsÕ moral and social consciousness through dialogue.

Goal 3: To provide undergraduate and graduate professional programs that develop in students an ability to apply course content to professional practice.

Objective 1: To educate competent, responsible professionals through curricula that incorporate guidelines established by professional accrediting agencies.

Objective 2: To relate theory to practice by offering diverse experiences such as field work, internships, student teaching, clinical assignments, and other practica.

Objective 3: To support and encourage, through graduate studies, the informed and perceptive use of research, creative scholarship, and professional responsibility in advanced practitioners of pedagogy.

Goal 4: To encourage the development of men and women toward their potential with the aim of liberating them from the restraints of self-centeredness on the one hand, and authoritarianism on the other.

Objective 1: To acquaint students with the great minds and cultures of the past and present and to increase their understanding and appreciation of the unique process by which each of the disciplines contributes to intellectual growth and development.

Objective 2: To provide services that support students in the realization of their potential in various disciplines.

Objective 3: To provide opportunities for co-curricular activities and extracurricular organizations that develop leadership through student-sponsored projects and student participation in campus planning by representation on committees.

Goal 5: To cultivate through the academic program: critical, logical, and ethical thinking; effective communication; an historical, social, and global perspective; an aesthetic sense; and the ability to integrate the various branches of knowledge.

Objective 1: To challenge the studentsÕ ability to think, sharpening their awareness of what constitutes sound thinking through core courses in the humanities and sciences, with the senior ethics course as the capstone.

Objective 2: To develop and refine the studentsÕ ability to communicate through writing, literature, speech, and interpersonal communication courses, as well as through the study of foreign languages and the social and behavioral sciences.

Objective 3: To communicate the underlying unity of human experience through studies in history and social sciences that draw upon knowledge of the past, as well as other cultures and belief systems, in striving to understand contemporary society and its sources.

Objective 4: To develop the studentsÕ aesthetic sense through course offerings in philosophy, literature, art, and music, and through the natural sciences that reveal the beauty and order inherent in nature.

Objective 5: To evaluate the ability of students to integrate the totality of their educational experience through seminars, the comprehensive examination, and other suitable outcome measures.

Goal 6: To develop in students a critical sense that will enable them to respond to the complex problems of this increasingly technological and materialistic age with solutions based on Judeo-Christian values.

Objective 1: To provide, through philosophy and religious studies, a basic framework within which all knowledge is evaluated and integrated according to rational principles and in light of Christian revelation.

Objective 2: To permeate all instruction with Judeo-Christian principles so that students will become accustomed to evaluating knowledge and its application in light of these principles.

Approved by the Holy Family College Board of Trustees, October 1990