Innovation | Campaign Priorities

Innovation in Learning and Teaching

Whether they are teaching on campus or remotely, Amherst faculty are redesigning courses and majors, considering more shared intellectual experiences, emphasizing writing and oral communication and providing students with more opportunities to learn by doing: through research, field-based projects, career exploration and internships. Giving opportunities include support for these programs through a mix of endowment and start-up funding that will allow all students to take advantage of more than one of these opportunities.

Learning by Doing/Immersive Learning Experiences

Amherst prides itself on intensive faculty-student interaction—often cited by students and alumni as pivotal to their undergraduate education—and has been expanding the forms that this can take to include substantial research opportunities on and off campus.

Spendable or endowed support for faculty-led student research trips
Double the number of undergraduate research opportunities
Endow and name the undergraduate research program

The Center for Teaching and Learning

The Center collaborates with faculty, instructional staff and other campus partners to think through course design, to embrace inclusive pedagogies and to consider what it means to teach the whole student.

The Center for Writing and Speaking

An instructor and a student look at writing samples spread out on a table

The Center for Writing and Speaking is a resource that honors strong writing and effective communication as a central part of intellectual life on campus and an important facet of an Amherst education. It serves students at all stages of their development as writers and speakers and faculty seeking to enhance their teaching of writing and the communication of ideas.

The Moss Quantitative Center

The Moss Quantitative Center—known on campus as the Q Center—plays an important role in helping all students achieve greater success, regardless of their quantitative background. Its Undergraduate Fellows Program consists of students who tutor other students in STEM fields.

Giving opportunities include tutor positions for mathematics, statistics, chemistry, biology, physics and computer science.

The Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning

Amherst College students on a career trek, sitting at a conference table

The Loeb Center’s Careers In programs offer personalized advising, skill-building workshops, experiential activities and the chance for students to engage with alumni and potential employers. The Loeb Center is looking to endow these programs and expand its offerings in key areas.

Careers in Science & Technology
Careers in Law, Government & Non-Profit

The Loeb Center’s Internship Programs encourage students to apply their intellectual abilities to their developing sense of opportunities in order to make a difference in the world. High-quality internships are essential to the success of that work.

Double the current support of 230 students to reach the entire class
Endow and name an internship fund

Giving Innovation