The GRCSU’s Portrait of a Graduate exemplifies the five core competencies that articulate our community’s aspirations for all of our students. The five competencies are as follows:
- Adaptability
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Empathy
- Responsibility
The GRCSU Portrait of a Graduate is meant to complement academics and assessment scores as measures of student preparedness. While it does not replace a focus on academic achievement and excellence, it shows our communities’ commitment to investing in educational experiences that educate the whole child. In addition, the GRCSU Portrait of a Graduate instills a belief that deeper learning occurs through a deliberate integration of rigorous academic content with learning experiences that purposefully cultivate skills, traits, mindsets, and literacies essential for our students to become lifelong learners and contributors in the 21st century.
The GRCSU’s Portrait of a Graduate design will serve as a symbol for the five themes we, as a community, value and hope will prepare our students for the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead of them. Our graduates will demonstrate their capacity to be responsible, adaptable, and resilient, to be critical thinkers and inquirers, to have self-awareness, be open-minded and empathetic while possessing the interpersonal skills to actively listen for understanding, and effectively communicate in a myriad of forms and contexts.
