Liberal Arts in Practice Requirement
Students who entered the college prior to Spring 2023 may meet either the Liberal Arts in Practice (LAP) Requirement or the Experience (E) Requirement. Students who entered Spring 2023 or later must meet the Experience (E) Requirement.
The Liberal Arts in Practice requirement is summarized below. See Experience (E) Requirement for information on the current requirement.
All students complete a Liberal Arts in Practice (LAP) experience, which involves applied or original work extending beyond the traditional classroom. Through undertaking and reflecting on these experiences, students connect their experiences beyond the traditional classroom with their learning in the classroom and transfer the skills developed in those experiences into other settings.
If a student is using Option 1 (a LAP 1-designated course) to fulfill the requirement, they do not need to turn in the form; the Registrar’s Office will automatically apply the course as fulfillment of the requirement on their advising worksheet. If a LAP 1 course has not been flagged appropriately on their worksheet in the Portal, they should send an email to registrar@beloit.edu as a reminder.
If using Option 2 (LAP 2-designated course) or Option 3 (LAP Synthesis) to fulfill the requirement, fill out the LAP completion form and return it to the Registrar’s Office, with appropriate signatures.
One exception for LAP 2 is the following: If using CHNL 201 Internship Workshop to fulfill the requirement, a student does not need to fill out the form and does not need other signatures. Successful completion with a grade of “CR” is accepted in lieu of instructor/advisor signatures.
For more details about the three options for fulfilling the LAP requirement, see the following:
Some courses are structured to incorporate a significant experience beyond the traditional classroom (such as research-related fieldwork or community engagement projects), and to assist students in reflecting on that experience, making meaningful connections to it, and transferring the skills developed in the experience into other settings.
These courses are LAP-designated courses (L1), and students who successfully complete a unit of such courses will have satisfied the LAP requirement.
For-credit internships, as well as applied or original work embedded in many of our off-campus study programs, may also count as LAP-designated credits. While some capstones may qualify as LAP-designated credits, note that a single capstone unit may not simultaneously satisfy both the LAP requirement and the capstone requirement.
Some courses may not themselves incorporate a significant experience beyond the traditional classroom, but they are designed to reflect on, make connections to, and transfer skills from beyond-the-classroom experiences external to the course (such as off-campus study).
All such courses, designated as L2 courses, together with their paired LAP experiences, satisfy the LAP requirement. This may include certain capstone courses.
Note that the courses in this option need not be a full unit to satisfy the requirement, and students need not earn academic credit for the paired LAP experience.
LAP syntheses occur when students connect one or more experiences extending beyond the traditional classroom with their coursework, transfer the skills developed in those experiences into other contexts, and reflect on them both in ongoing advising and through a culminating project: some public presentation, exhibit, publication, or performance.
LAP syntheses include a large and undefined range of possible experiences beyond the traditional classroom, including but not limited to: on-campus and off-campus jobs, community outreach, athletics, student government and other leadership opportunities, work at CELEB, in art galleries, or in museums, and travel opportunities unrelated to college work.
Students intending to satisfy their LAP requirement through a LAP synthesis must declare and explicitly articulate the synthesized experiences to their academic advisor before the end of their junior year. Approval is determined by an academic advisor, though the culminating project may be advised by a faculty or staff member other than an academic advisor.