Succeeding in a CEL course

Ultimately, success in a CEL course will vary between students. You get what you put in. To have a successful or beneficial experience it is important to be open-minded as well as skeptical and have intellectual courage and humility.

Open Mindedness-Stay Curious

As Walt Disney once said, "When you're curious you find lots of interesting things to do". In a CEL course, curiosity is in fact encouraged. Open-mindedness is a key ingredient within the very structure of the liberal arts colleges' goal to create citizens of the world. Open-mindedness is simply an ability to practice empathy and to see things from another point of view.

Skepticism -Ask Questions

Within the context of a CEL course, skepticism is also encouraged. Skepticism is a form of criticism. In fact, thinking critically is part of the history of knowledge and academia. It's less of general ignorance but thinking Socratically and asking questions that won't necessarily be answered. It is important for students to be able to think critically and realistically within the context of engaging with a community partner.

Intellectual Courage-Take Risks

Intellectual Courage can be defined as, " taking risks to attain epistemic goods such as truth or knowledge"(Brown, 56). One of the benefits of a CEL course is learning having the opportunity to take risks in a controlled environment. Students who undertake this type of class will be challenged with finding a solution to modern real-world problems. The way that this can be accomplished is courage through inquiry and courage through communication.

Intellectual Humility-Set Boundaries

More often than not, you will not accomplish everything that you set out to do. Intellectual Humility is about knowing one's own limitations, recognizing them, and taking the steps to overcome them. Though CEL is a scenario to discover your own strengths and shortcomings it is also very important to set boundaries for yourself. Part of CEL is the idea of teamwork and seeing how all of the different ideas can come together to benefit a community.