All About G-RAP

Gingerbread Jubilee 2021
Faculty 2021
Kittredge Pond Goslings
2020 Mardi Gras
Old Main
Arnett Hall
Group pic

G-RAP draws on insights from disciplines across the humanities and social sciences to give students the theoretical and methodological skills and the knowledge base necessary to understand our complex and rapidly changing world. 

As CU educates the leaders of the future, G-RAP must prepare them to deal with the great issues facing the world - health, peace, prosperity, environmental sustainability - from a basis of cultural, historical, and scientific understanding. 

G-RAP promotes engaged learning in order to grasp the main currents of global studies, including the cultural challenges and opportunities and the ethical values that are at stake. Through lively class discussions, numerous co-curricular and extra-curricular events, and projects nurtured in this residential setting, G-RAP students develop understanding and compassion for the people in different countries and in diverse communities. The global flux in cultural goods, natural resources, and migrating people have given the traditional problems of poverty, hunger, and war greater complexity and urgency. Students at G-RAP learn to compose their thoughts more clearly, communicate them more effectively, and reflect on them more cooperatively so that they can be of use in the world. G-RAP students and faculty recognize the wisdom of past generations and their legacies, as they are necessary points of departure for their own thinking

One benefit of G-RAP is small class sizes. While equivalent course outside the RAP may contain a few dozen to a few hundred students, our courses do not exceed nineteen students, all of whom live in Arnett Hall. As a result, most classes are conducted as lively discussions in which students are encouraged and expected to participate. They draw insights from various social sciences and related fields, including political science, anthropology, cultural studies, economics, literature, sociology, philosophy, linguistics, and history. The faculty at G-RAP are hired with the understanding that we place a high value on excellent teaching and supporting first-year students.

Strategic Goals of G-RAP

Students will develop a sense of intellectual purpose that equips them to be active participants in the life of a major research university and beyond.

  • understand the new expectations of college-level learning
  • take initiative in their academic endeavors
  • confidently and actively participate in class activities
  • develop interdisciplinary thinking
  • navigate complex information landscapes (information literacy)
  • develop skills that will enable them to work collaboratively as well as independently
  • welcome and seek out a wide diversity of thought in order to think critically and solve problems creatively

Students will build early connections with faculty, staff, and peers.

  • participate in co-curricular and extracurricular activities, building connections with others in their RAP community
  • feel a sense of inclusion by being integrated into the campus community including developing connections to, and an understanding of, the campus beyond their RAP community
  • develop a sense of global citizenship and cross-cultural interconnectedness
  • be empowered to overcome feelings of loneliness, isolation, and anxiety
  • learn to self-advocate for their specific learning needs and styles

Students will understand the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion in learning and community.

  • critically engage with discussions of power, privilege, and intersectionality to understand how their social positions affect their perspectives
  • interrogate and evaluate perspectives of texts, experts, and other sources
  • feel empowered to voice their multiple identities in the classroom
  • participate in co-curricular activities that include a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and communities on campus and beyond
  • engage respectfully and meaningfully with others from diverse backgrounds and different perspectives

Students will develop their creative thinking, critical analysis, and communication skills.

  • understand the importance of original thought and interpretation
  • develop and communicate their own informed analyses
  • evaluate both quantitative and qualitative data, demonstrate inductive and deductive reasoning, and demonstrate the ability to make an argument from evidence
  • present research and arguments in writing and oral presentations