University Course

First Year Advising

This course provides first-semester UST students with an orientation to the University of St. Thomas, its mission as a Catholic and Basilian University, and the interrelationship between the University's mission and effective leadership.

This course teaches the fundamentals of academic research. Upon completion of this course students will be able to: recognize the need for reliable information, locate reliable information effectively, evaluate information critically, use information ethically, and communicate information persuasively.

This course is designed to introduce students to research methods used in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas. There will be laboratory exercises in all of the STEM areas at the University of St. Thomas. Prerequisite: Acceptance in the Science and Mathematics Summer Institute. Co-requisite: MATH 1425 Summer only

Lower–division treatment of a selected topic of mutual interest to the faculty member and students.

An introductory course in fundamental Catholic theology, presenting the basic openness of the human person to divine revelation, the historical veracity of that revelation, and selected major theological themes in the Catholic worldview, with an eye to their coherence with one another and with the human person.

A historical perspective on Western culture, society, and politics. This course aims to foster both historical consciousness and the stability and circumspection that results from an awareness of the richness and diversity of the past. Central to this course is the relation of selfhood and interiority to the public sphere of human action.

A study of nature and the human person according to the Aristotelian tradition, which covers many topics, including soul and body, sensation, emotion, thought, and will.

An introduction to the liberal arts of language: grammar, logic, and rhetoric, accompanied by an explanation of liberal learning itself, its nature and importance. The course is interdisciplinary and may be taught from different disciplinary perspectives, depending on the professor.

Lower–division treatment of a selected topic of mutual interest to the faculty member and students.

Lower–division treatment of a selected topic of mutual interest to the faculty member and students.

This course introduces students to the foundational issues in the study of ethical leadership. The first part of the course will examine key theoretical problems that have occupied moral and political thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to St Thomas Aquinas and the American Founders: What makes a leader successful? What sort of characteristics and virtues are necessary for leadership? What kind of education and formation do leaders need? Is there a distinctly practical form of wisdom and how can it be acquired? Who are moral exemplars and how can we identify them? What kinds of societies and political regimes best serve to encourage good leaders and to constrain bad ones? How might power tempt and corrupt leaders? How might this be resisted? What is the relationship between leadership and morality? What functions does leadership fill, and what challenges do leaders face, in modern democratic states? How do the various forms of leadership (business, political, military, moral, and spiritual) relate to one another? The second half of the course will look at leaders in action, charting the efforts of politicians, intellectuals, grassroots activists, and moral and spiritual leaders to respond to the challenges of their time and shape the worlds in which they live.

This course introduces students to a broad and fundamental understanding of how their chosen major subject relates to the larger world, the economy & business realities. It helps students establish a mindset where they see how their individual creativity, initiative, innovative tendencies and adaptability will be useful in their careers, adopting traits from successful entrepreneurs. Case studies and individual examples that are discipline-specific bring to life some of these concepts.

The practicum is the core, capstone experience for students pursuing a Leadership Studies minor. Students will apply the knowledge and skills gained in other courses in the minor by engaging in experiential learning. Practicums can be internships or designed as part of other experiential learning activities (such as volunteer service projects, study abroad programs, and research projects) and are focused on individual leader development in organizational and professional settings.

Upper–division treatment of a selected topic of mutual interest to the faculty member and students.

Treatment of a selected topic of mutual interest to the faculty member and students.