Humanities Endorsement
Our Humanities Endorsement program is designed to broaden and deepen students understanding of culture, texts, tradition, and more to better frame their understanding of their own world.
Humanities Overview
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."
Proverbs 9:10
Humanities students work towards a broad and deep understanding of the culture of Western civilization, explore the foundational texts of our inherited tradition, and bear witness to the integrated nature of learning in the ordered cosmos created by a providential God. Students grow in reading, writing, and speaking abilities as they engage in a variety of coursework in Humanities and rhetoric, preparing them for a meaningful college experience and a life of responsible citizenship.
Students work toward a major endorsement comprised of five competencies:
Program Goals
Our humanities endorsement program is designed to broaden and deepen students understanding of culture, texts, tradition, and more. View even more of our goals below:
- Engage the great conversation of the Western canon. Access the best that has endured from the past 2,500 years.
- Inhabit the texts, worldviews, and cultures of the past while launching a lifelong imbibing from these rich cultural wells.
- Explore the world created by the geniuses of our tradition. Walk the streets walked by the people who shaped our culture.
- Add your voice to the conversation. Transform your world through your own transformation.
Engage
Engage the great conversation of the Western canon. Inhabit the texts, worldviews, and cultures of the past as you begin a lifelong quest to grow in knowledge and wisdom.
Explore
Explore the world created by the geniuses of the Western tradition. Walk the streets walked by the people who made our world.
Transform
Transform your world through your own transformation. Add your voice to the conversation.
Humanities Program Requirements
Completing the Humanities Endorsement
Each endorsement program at Valor entails a specific number of what we have called experiential units (EUs) to achieve the designation. The intent for the Humanities endorsement has always been that students be able to complete the endorsement requirements primarily through coursework. This leaves students pursuing the endorsement free to pursue a passion in the arts, athletics, or even another endorsement program, such as STEM or Business. Each endorsement program also features a major or minor option. Below you will find the requirements both for minoring or majoring in the Humanities program.
Experiential Units: 8 EUs
Additional courses & program features that help fulfill those requirements:
- Humanities I (2 EUs)
- Humanities II (2 EUs)
- Introductory & Intermediate Logic (1 EU)
- DC Rhetoric (1 EU)
- Latin (1 EU per year of study)
- Speech & Debate (1 EU per year of study)
- Bible elective (.5 EU per semester-long class)
- Lecture series—external or internal speakers (.25 EU per lecture attended)
- Practicum Trip—National (1 EU)
- European Tour—Junior or Senior Year (3 EUs)
- Senior Thesis (required for major or minor—1 EU)
Contact Humanities Endorsement Lead Toby Coffman at the button below:
Latest Endorsement Program Stories
- STEM
- Humanities
- STEM
Vertical mattress, simple interrupted, and continuous are all terms that have been thrown around in the Anatomy and Physiology classes recently.
- STEM
Valor Biology and Honors Biology students have been hard at work observing the visible indications of Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration in algal beads. Students had to use their newly learned lab skills to set up algal beads in a carbon dioxide indicator and observe a color change.
- STEM
Are you adventurous? Like bungee jumping? Do you think the length of the cord and the size of the person matters when bungee jumping? Would it be smart to lie about your height or weight? Recently, as students learned about linear regression, in AP Stats, they explored this idea through a Barbie Bungee Activity.
- Humanities
It might be remembered by the veterans of this program that the original name for the Humanities endorsement program was the Rhetoric endorsement program.
- STEM
Students in AP Calculus had a chance to play cops and speeders.
- Humanities
There are a few different paths through the Humanities program.
- Business
Thanks to generous donors, the main business classroom at Valor looks more like a university business classroom these days.