Angela Hurley

Many students call and write to us long after they’ve left Transylvania, so we never quite stop being their mentors.

One of Angela Hurley’s fondest memories is when a Transylvania elementary education graduate called to say that she was on her way to pick up her cap and gown for graduation from Harvard University.

It’s not that unusual an occurrence. “One reason we can do such a good job of preparing our students is that we know each of them very well,” says Hurley. “We tailor our program to meet their needs. Our students and faculty become a little community.”

In the classroom, Hurley helps students learn how to reason well about important ideas and urgent questions, while also engaging their hearts and spirits.

“Our education program is deeply theoretical, yet practice-oriented,” she points out. “It allows our students to worry with and understand the big existential questions involved in teaching and learning and of being in the world. Whether they intend to teach or not, our students leave our courses with a greater appreciation of what it means to be a human being in positive relations with diverse ‘others.’ “

Transylvania’s liberal arts curriculum is vital to that understanding, according to Hurley. “It’s invigorating when students make connections between the diverse disciplinary conceptual information. But the way our education program is structured and the courses we teach are also liberal arts in design, focus, and delivery. We consider the discipline of education to be a part of the liberal arts.”