Polaris Project
B.A. IN LIBERAL STUDIES:
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POLARIS PROJECT
The Polaris Project, named for the North Star by which explorers have navigated for centuries, offers a four-year educational through-line that calls on students to build, create, or discover something that serves the human good.
Polaris Projects are developed in a workshop environment and can be creative, scholarly, technical, artistic, philanthropic, entrepreneurial—this list is not exhaustive.
In formulating them, students must wrestle with fundamental questions: What is human flourishing? How does your project contribute to human flourishing in concrete and specifiable ways, and why are you well-equipped to undertake it? Trying to answer these questions helps students think deeply, aim high, and develop projects that suit their inclinations and stretch their capacities.
In time, they craft proposals that not only meet the Polaris Project’s high standards, but attract potential collaborators, investors, and customers.
project objectives
The Polaris Project is housed within the Polaris Center for Personal and Professional Flourishing. For more information on this Center, please visit our website.
Work productively and cooperatively on a project to make, build, or discover something of general benefit
Plan, execute, assess, publicly present, and effectively field questions about one’s project
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The program Curriculum
Polaris Program courses lead students through the process of envisioning and creating a Polaris Project in a highly collaborative setting while training them how to effectively employ the tools, processes, and interpersonal behaviors that drive high performance in the modern professional world.
Along the way students are paired with a dedicated Polaris Guide who provides personalized coaching, aids their discovery of aptitudes and interests, supports the development of their Polaris Projects with feedback and advice, and helps to navigate any questions or issues that arise.
All Polaris Program courses (21 credit hours) are required in conjunction with the Polaris Project. The sequence of courses is as follows:
courses
Polaris Retreat (0 credits)
Introduction to the Polaris Project.
Polaris Ideas (3 credits)
Where do ideas come from? Is the process similar for practical inventions, like the light bulb, and intellectual and artistic ones, like scientific discoveries, novels, paintings, and music? What are the social and economic preconditions for successful innovations? This seminar explores these questions by engaging with a wide variety of readings.
Polaris Inspirations (3 credits)
This course uses case studies and lectures to introduce students to a broad variety of possible Polaris projects and to the basic methods employed in the UATX Academic Centers. Invited speakers lecture about their own Polaris-style projects (e.g., starting a business, founding a newspaper) and students read case studies associated with these lectures. Student deliverables include lecture/case study reviews and journals.
Polaris Frame (3 credits)
This course provides a forum for students to workshop their Polaris projects. Students present their project proposals to their peers and to professors from different academic Centers and receive critical feedback. The course also includes units on digital literacy, including blogs, podcasts, and websites. Deliverables include a preliminary project proposal, a ranked list of six potential mentors, and three detailed precedent studies.
Polaris Pitch (3 credits)
Students enroll in a Polaris Pitch course offered by the academic Center in which they will be undertaking their projects. In this course, students work intensively on producing and pitching a polished proposal. Students present plans to peers and faculty and collectively refine their projects. At the conclusion of the course, students present their projects for final approval to a committee of UATX faculty and outside experts. Deliverables include a detailed project proposal and public engagement plan, as well as a roadmap of the process for realizing the project over the next five terms, i.e., by the end of the following academic year.
Polaris Build (1.5 credits)
In these independent study courses, students build their projects. They contact potential external mentors and generate a correspondence portfolio, including rejections. Having contracted with a mentor, they work with him or her as well as a UATX faculty member, receiving 1.5 credits of course relief each term in acknowledgement of the time that they are spending on their projects. Students report on their progress at the end of each term, and the Polaris Director and/or UATX faculty mentor establishes that the student is hitting his or her target dates of deliverables.
Note: Course is repeatable
Polaris Launch (3 credits)
Students launch their projects beyond UATX. The deliverable at the end of this term is the project itself. These projects are demonstrated through an internal fair/expo (all projects) and an external showcase (select projects, chosen by competition).