Grab a book.
Open it with friends.
Ask a real question.
Hildegard College was created to solve a problem.
Higher education has lost its way.
Modern higher education has separated the practical parts of learning from the moral, spiritual, and beautiful parts. As a result, college graduates lack the knowledge, conviction, and adaptability that the next generation will need to lead a society looking for answers and to thrive in a rapidly changing economy.
Christian and secular colleges alike have abandoned the practices that enable deep learning—practices of active, personal, rigorous, and creative engagement. In the name of efficiency, universities have become ineffective. As C.S. Lewis describes it,
“In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.”
It’s time for a new kind of Christian college.
Hildegard is the first college to join the classical liberal arts with an action-based education in entrepreneurship and formational leadership, integrated in a single program.
Hildegard is designed to prepare students for the multidimensional world that they will graduate into.
We don’t pigeon-hole our students into over-specialized tracks. Instead, the curriculum aims to prepare students for a changing world. Our students read the greatest literature and study the most important questions. And at the same time, they learn to understand systems, tackle complex problems, communicate effectively, launch initiatives, and exercise wisdom in the face of adversity.
Our program is motivated by the dual convictions that . . .
You can’t build great things unless you’ve been shaped by great ideas.
And you haven’t truly engaged with great ideas unless they move you to change the world.
We’re Classical
Renewing the Liberal Arts
Most Liberal Arts colleges have abandoned the goal of liberal education: to fortify the mind with the freedom, knowledge, and faith it needs to recognize and choose what is good and true. It is an education for the sake of freedom—socially, morally, and spiritually.
Reading the classics
Our graduates are steeped in classic literature, art, philosophy, science, and mathematics. We don’t use textbooks or give multiple choice exams. We read and discuss original sources from the dynamic historical contexts in which they were made, for the sake of better understanding the world and ourselves.
Learning in community
Nobody else can learn for you, but it helps to have others by your side. A powerful education begins by entering into an authentic community of fellow travelers. Our classes are purposely small and require that students not only know but care for and understand one another. They are conducted around a common table where everyone’s ideas matter.
We’re Practical
85% of the jobs that will be available to college graduates in 2030 haven’t been invented yet.
The economic and social world is changing, and preparing for this change requires that you have a sharp and adaptable intellect, confidence in the face of the unknown, and the resilience to lead others when no one else will.
Project-based
Rather than learning about finance, marketing, and design secondhand through textbooks, from Day 1, students will learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurial thought and leadership by building things together.
Future-minded
Rather than focus on a single, expiring technical skill, we ask all of our students to understand the whole process—from identifying a need, to planning and launching. Our students learn how to harness their passion and use it to change the world.
We’re Christian
Discipleship
Theology, the Bible, and Christian thought permeate our Liberal Arts curriculum. We approach questions of belief and purpose from within the cultural conversations that they emerged, cultivating a fuller understanding of the role of faith in the well-lived life.
Learning how to engage with big ideas is not an academic exercise. It’s a form of discipleship that begins and ends with faith.
Faith seeking understanding
Every institution of learning has a worldview, whether or not they acknowledge it. We believe that a person’s worldview makes a significant difference in their education. The same goes for a community of learners. Faith and intellectual honesty must coexist. We value the freedom to ask real questions and challenge the status quo without blindly adopting the biases of secularism.
We’re an ecumenically minded Christian school, where faith is viewed as an important part of the pursuit of knowledge.
For love of the world
Jesus’s greatest commandments ask us to love God and to love our neighbors. Hildegard College helps to form young people into leaders in their communities. And for us leading others means putting them first. Our students begin by wrestling with first-order questions about concepts like love, justice, mystery, and beauty, and they build on this foundation by applying their ideas to the real world.
True learning moves you to act. We help students discover where and how to direct their passion to serve others.
We’re reimagining the college model
One Degree Track
All students earn an interdisciplinary major:
B. A. in Christian Liberal Arts and Entrepreneurship
Students share the same classes and the same goals with their cohort throughout the program, sharing challenges and accomplishments with each other.
Hildegard is for young people who…
Want to learn in authentic community.
Are ready to study the world’s greatest ideas, most challenging questions, and most powerful art.
Want to find their passion and learn to use it in creative acts of loving God and loving others.