Professional, Ethical, Articulate, and Knowledgeable

The PEAK Curriculum

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 Big Horn Crags, Rhodes Peak. The College of Idaho proudly offers a distinctive curriculum—the PEAK Curriculum—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 the social sciences and history; the humanities and fine arts; the natural sciences and mathematics; and professional foundations. 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 Curriculum 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 Curriculum, students design their own combination of major and minor programs across four areas that will make them better prepared, more confident, and more attractive to employers, graduate schools, and professional programs than graduates of the traditional distribution systems common at many colleges. Under PEAK, students will pursue roughly one-third of the 124-credit bachelor's program in their chosen major, one-third in pursuit of three minors, and 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 Curriculum 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. Where change is the norm, both breadth and depth of study are requisites for success.