Monmouth College Guarantees Internships, Study Abroad and Graduation in Four Years
MONMOUTH, IL – Monmouth College officials recently announced a substantial promise to all incoming students. The Monmouth College Commitment guarantees incoming students who meet the college’s academic and social expectations an internship, study-abroad experience and graduation in four years. If a student is unable to secure the components of the commitment within four consecutive years of enrollment, the college will provide up to an additional year of study tuition-free.
Thanks to the innovative program, “mc2” now means more than part of Albert Einstein’s famous formula, as the Monmouth College Commitment was unveiled to prospective students with a slogan of U = MC2.
“Monmouth College is a place of high opportunity,” says President Clarence R. Wyatt. “Being a place of high opportunity means more than just helping a student pay the bill. We define ‘high opportunity’ as all of the rich experiences available through the liberating arts at Monmouth College.”
The Monmouth College Passport Program, an initiative that provides a U.S. passport at no charge to entering Monmouth students, goes hand-in-hand with the study-abroad expectation. Wyatt said the Passport Program “opens the world to our students” by providing the paperwork and application fee for eligible Monmouth students to receive a U.S. passport.
The College’s students are already well versed in internships — a total of 83 percent of Monmouth’s Class of 2015 reported participating in at least one internship during their studies, and most were involved in more than one. The national average is about 70 percent.
In addition to study abroad and internships, a greater percentage of Monmouth students take part in experiences such as the fine arts, athletics, activism and student government than do their peers at larger institutions.
“These experiences do more than lead to a degree — they nurture qualities of intellectual curiosity, responsibility for self and others, and moral courage,” said Wyatt. “These experiences empower lives of learning, leadership and service. Because we believe so deeply in the power of the liberating arts experience at Monmouth College, we make this commitment.
Trent Gilbert, Monmouth’s vice president for enrollment management and communications, says the Monmouth College Commitment supports the College’s goal to “enroll graduates.”
“At Monmouth, we are not interested in simply recruiting students – we want to enroll graduates," said Gilbert. "We take our commitment seriously to prepare all of our students to graduate and to have rewarding careers.”
More information about the Monmouth College Commitment can be found at www.monmouthcollege.edu/mc2.
Founded in 1853, Monmouth College is a private, selective, residential college of 1,200 students in western Illinois. This liberal arts institution offers majors in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, as well as outstanding academic advising, small, seminar-style classes, varied internship and study abroad opportunities, and summer research experiences to thoughtful, intellectually engaged and ambitious students from across the U.S. and around the world.