The Beloit Plan: A Unique Experiment
The Beloit Plan, 它的全年课程和强调在新的学习环境中的经验, 是对大学教育应该是什么样子的彻底反思吗. 它吸引了一批杰出的学生，培养了一代杰出的校友.
With its unconventional year-round calendar, common courses, and required Field Term, 1964年，伯洛伊特计划启动，使伯洛伊特学院声名鹊起. Although it ended after only 14 years, 通过参与该计划的杰出校友，该计划的遗产仍然存在, and in the college itself, which continues to be an innovator in higher education. (U.S. News & World Report ranked Beloit No. 5 on its most innovative schools list in 2021.)
“……伯洛伊特学院认为，教育过程必须不断地重新审视和改进. The alert and sensitive college does not stand still. 它研究今天的需求，当然也研究明天的需求.”
— From Educational Blueprint for Beloit College, a 1959 report that laid the groundwork for the Beloit Plan.
In the ’60s, when the college debuted its new educational plan, 入学人数增加，伯洛伊特开始吸引更多来自不同地区的学生, among other things.
Before the Plan, 伯洛伊特的大多数学生来自威斯康星州和伊利诺伊州, but five years into the program, only 37 percent were from those states, more students enrolled from both coasts, and the student body hailed from 48 states and 22 countries.
将不同背景的学生聚集在一所住宿文理学院只是该计划的天才之一. 另一个是对传统的本科课程安排进行彻底的重新构想.
而不是按照传统的从一年级到大四四年的轨迹, 学生们参加了三个为期15周的课程，并通过被称为“下层阶级”的指定来进步, Middleclass, and Upperclass. Each one required a certain number of academic terms, combined with off-campus experiences, such as jobs, study abroad, time off, or a Field Term.
这个想法是为了帮助学生建立智力能力, 然后把他们带到外面的世界去测试和扩展他们所学的知识. The course of study was individualized, 期望学生根据自己的兴趣定制课程和经历.
设计外地期限的特设委员会成员认为，这一时期的工作, service, 或者研究——最好是在校外和离家——可以帮助学生摆脱他们的地方观念. 一本小册子将实地学期吹捧为“有组织的尝试，将学生带入新的生活和学习环境。.”
通常，实地学期让学生们看到了他们想要的生活方式.
近5500名伯洛伊特学生在49个州完成了学期.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and 57 countries. Their final reports, many housed in the College Archives, capture the program’s impact in students’ own words, as they adapted to challenges and unfamiliar roles, often in faraway places.
Voices: The Beloit Plan
J.R. Sullivan’72
“伯洛伊特计划改变了我的生活，并深刻地深化了我的生活. 1971年在密尔沃基话剧团(Milwaukee Repertory Theatre)实习，随后立即在校园里当上了已故演员的学徒, 伟大的伯洛伊特宫廷剧院——让我走上了专业戏剧的道路. 我加入了罗克福德新美国剧院的艺术和制作管理部门, the Beloit Festival Theatre through the summers of the 1980s, the Utah Shakespeare Festival through the early 2000s, the Pearl Theatre Company in New York, and now the Irish Theatre of Chicago. 伯洛伊特计划的实地学期经历让我置身于一个蓬勃发展的常驻专业剧院，每个部门都有出色的导师, from directors to designers to actors to technicians. 我甚至花时间在行政办公室输入季票续订表格(还记得IBM电动打字机吗?). 伯洛伊特让我比以前更有信心、更有抱负地走上了人生的道路, 如果我想在戏剧界谋得一席之地，这两者都是至关重要的.” —J.R. Sullivan’72
Jessica Mott’75
Jessica Mott’75 started at Beloit as a self-described “flaky, hippie student,” but her experiences during the Beloit Plan were transforming, 这让她获得了约翰霍普金斯大学高级国际研究学院的硕士学位, 并促使她与世界银行一起从事广泛的国际项目，重点是土地管理和自然资源管理. An international relations major, 莫特完成了三个实地学期:一个是在新罕布什尔的户外教育营教书, another at a Spanish-speaking summer camp near Boston, and a third in Arequipa, Peru, 在那里，她加入了一个由18名别称“El Grupo wisis”的beloiter组织.在那里，她在当地一所大学上课——全部用西班牙语授课. 她和她的同龄人向寄宿家庭学习，并在全国各地旅行. Because the Plan had built-in flexibility, 莫特在毕业前又在秘鲁待了一个学期，在当地的美国学院教授英语作为第二语言.
Barb Sheinberg’78
Drawn to Beloit for its alternative curriculum, 78岁的Barb Sheinberg在开始学习一系列自然科学领域术语之前，在学校度过了她的前三个学期. At an environmental camp in Ocean Park, Maine, 她给从未见过蔓越莓沼泽的孩子们上生态学课. 有一年夏天，她在爱德华王子岛的一个有机农场工作, Canada, before a final Field Term at a lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Quickly, 谢恩伯格发现，她不想继续测试消灭入侵的淡水蛤蜊所需的氯量, although she was grateful for the experience. “当你经历了你真正不喜欢的事情时，你可能会学到更多, like killing clams!” she says. When she returned to Beloit, 她主修地质学，并在朱诺找到了矿产勘探和野外地质学方面的前几份工作, Alaska, 她在哪里继续生活和从事环境咨询工作.
