+ Great Texts

Hildegard’s curriculum is founded on the fellowship of discussing foundational texts around a common table.

The Great Texts are part of an educational approach pioneered at the University of Chicago and Columbia University in the early 20th Century. It promotes the guided study of selected classics in philosophy, poetry, political theory, fiction, theology, drama, history, psychology, social thought, and everything in-between. It is a conversation among great minds throughout history.

Our Great Books core treats the student as the center of learning. We ask students to do more than simply memorize facts but also to grapple with ideas in their original contexts and test them against our own assumptions. Our faculty act as guides—not lecturers—and every conversation is unique.

Our book list includes classics that are important for all students to know, but it is also a living list, always evolving with what we learn and value.

Great Books 1: Ancient Philosophy & Art

Great Books 2: Hebrew Scriptures and Eastern Wisdom Literature

Great Books 3: Rome & the New Testament

Great Books 4: The Middle Ages

Great Books 5: Renaissance & Reformation

Great Books 6: Early Modernity & the Age of Reason

Great Books 7: The Modern Age

Great Books 8: Emerging Ideas

+ Mathematics Tutorial

> "The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry, and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful."> — Aristotle

Mathematics is not only for “math people.” It’s for everyone who seeks what is true and beautiful in the world.

The classical liberal arts consist of seven fields, four of which are mathematical: geometry, astronomy, music, and arithmetic. Math is sometimes described as the study of the objective relations between objects in space. But it is much more. It is the language of logic, of order, even of beauty itself. It is with math that we recognize truth.

Hildegard students study mathematics to grow in wisdom and knowledge but also for the sake of application. Our curriculum stresses the meaning of mathematics, its origins and relationship to philosophy, music, and theology. And students acquire an understanding of the function of mathematics in comprehending systems, data, computation, and probability.

In the Math Tutorial, students discuss foundational texts in geometry, arithmetic, and calculus in the same style as we approach texts in the Great Text core, through discussion, wonder, and fellowship. It consists of three courses:

Mathematics 1: Geometry

Mathematics 2: Analytic Mathematics

Mathematics 3: Discrete Mathematics

> "Arithmetic leads the soul forcibly upward and compels it to discuss the numbers themselves, never permitting anyone to propose for discussion numbers attached to visible or tangible bodies. . . . It compels the soul to use understanding itself on the truth itself."> —Plato, Republic

+ Natural Science Tutorial

> “The whole visible world is only an imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. . . . We may enlarge our conceptions beyond an imaginable space; we only produce atoms in comparison with the reality of things. It is an infinite sphere, the centre of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. In short, it is the greatest sensible mark of the almighty power of God that imagination loses itself in that thought.”> —Blaise Pascal

A “science” is an ordered field of knowledge. Modern scientific method follows an inductive order consisting of hypothesizing and testing. Classical astronomy is the observation, both measured and theoretical, of celestial bodies. And natural philosophy (the name for "science" in the Middle Ages and Renaissance) explores the “the book of nature,” examining different kinds of causes that give order to the world and help to instruct our interaction with it.

The Latin word “scientia” refers to that which is known and can be demonstrated. In the Natural Science Tutorial, students will explore not only some of the most significant scientific discoveries of history but also how these discoveries affected history’s understanding of knowledge itself. It’s a journey through different ways of making sense of nature.

Students will be able to articulate ideas debated at major turning points in history, including: Ptolemaic vs. Copernican cosmology, Atomism vs. Holism, Newton’s law of gravitation, and The quantum revolution.

Students will also grapple with the relation between faith and science. In the Christian Liberal Arts tradition, theology is the queen of the sciences. Theology is called a science not because it offers empirical or merely technical knowledge but because it deals in those matters of truth and being about which we can aspire to have the most certainty. We will look to the classics to better understand the concordance of scientific knowledge with theological knowledge.

The Science Tutorial consists of three courses:

Natural Science 1: The Ancients

Aristotle, Democritus, Leucippus, Lucretius, Ptolemy, Thales, Thomas Aquinas,

Natural Science 2: The Scientific Revolution

Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Thomas Kepler, Thomas Kuhn, Blais Pascal

Natural Science 3: Modern Physics

Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Richard Feynman, Arthur Eddington, Werner Heinsenberg, Tim Maudlin, Erwin Schrödinger

+ Seminar in Social Innovation

> “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”> —Peter Drucker

Hildegard College is founded on the beliefs that learning is redemptive and that redemption is creative. Instead of instilling graduates with the knowledge and wisdom of the liberal arts and then sending them off to do something with it, we integrate an education in making and doing into our program.

The Seminar in Social Innovation trains students in how to identify needs and build things to meet those needs for the common good.

Students learn entrepreneurship, leadership, communication, marketing, data analysis, and economics in the same style that they learn ancient philosophy, physics, theology, and art—through discussion and collaboration.

Every course in Social Innovation is project-based, as students examine real needs and create real solutions. An Incubation Lab accompanies each course.

The Seminar in Social Innovation includes:

Theology of Work & Leadership

The Story of Money

The Art & Science of Marketing

Design Thinking for Startups

Business Model Creation

Communication for Value Creation

Entities, Investments, Equity, & Governments

Adaptive Strategic Planning

+ Graduate in 3 Years

At Hildegard, students graduate in three years through the "3+1" program. College has changed. And the majority of students enter college with credits in hand or with plans to accumulate credit through online courses or internships. Not only do we allow for this; we encourage it.

All students compile and transfer a year’s worth of courses (30 credits) into Hildegard from wherever they choose:

• dual-credit programs,
• AP and IB tests,
• online courses,
• or college transfer.

Additionally, students may fulfill some or all of the 3+1 requirement through internships with our Civic Partners or organizations of their own choosing.

Through the 3+1 requirement, we encourage students to think creatively and entrepreneurially about customizing their education with unique experiences.