Watershed General Education

A river bend with fall trees in the foreground.

Why Western Watershed?

Western Watershed brings your major, minor, and certificates together through a shared set of general education courses and experiences.

A student looks through a scope on a tripod at golden hour. Pine trees and Taylor River can be seen in the background.

Integrated Learning

Connects science, humanities, social inquiry, and creative expression to real-world questions facing communities and ecosystems.

A creative writing student sits under a tree on Taylor Lawn and writes in her journal

Skills that Transfer

Into any career, including writing, public communication, information literacy, quantitative reasoning, teamwork, and critical thinking.

Western Theatre company performs a dance during the dress rehearsal for Tartuffe.

Hands-on Experience

That can include service learning, field work, creative projects, internships, or research.

Teocalli Mountain at sunrise on the Brush Creek Trail with wildflowers.

A Clear Path

From your first semester to a culminating project that showcases how you apply what you learn.

Local to Global Perspectives

With opportunities to learn from the Gunnison Valley as a living classroom while gaining insight into global systems and cultures.

Students wearing life jackets hold up Ws while rafting down the Taylor River.

Western Watershed Catalog

Check back soon to see what the Western Watershed curriculum has to offer!

How It Works

Western Watershed is designed like a river system that builds flow and momentum:

Introduces you to inquiry, campus resources, and community through discussion, workshops, or local field experiences.

Develop core capabilities and multiple ways of knowing. You practice life skills, writing, reasoning with data, creative expression, scientific and social inquiry, and humanistic thinking.

The braided streams bring everything together, connecting your general education with your major, minor, and certificates. These are flexible tags that you earn along the way in areas such as Advanced Writing, Information Literacy, Public Communication, Local Knowledge, Global Knowledge, Power and Justice, Sustainability Knowledge, and Experiential Learning. Choose from many paths to reach at least five tags.

A one-credit, upper-division seminar where you collaborate on an interdisciplinary project that addresses a real issue and demonstrates your growth.

A view of the Castles rock formation with a stream in the foreground.

The Western Watershed Experience

Graduates of Western Watershed can:

Communicate ideas clearly in writing and speech for academic, professional, and public audiences.
Analyze information, reason with evidence, and make decisions using quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Integrate the physical and social sciences, history, humanities, and the arts to understand complex problems.
Practice personal and social responsibility through civic engagement, intercultural competence, and ethical action.
Apply learning across general studies and a chosen major to create practical solutions.

Choice with structure. The tag system lets you tailor learning to your interests while ensuring depth in writing, information, and public communication.
Place-powered learning. Gunnison Valley’s public lands, communities, and organizations provide unmatched opportunities for fieldwork and service.
Small classes and close mentorship. Faculty know your goals and help you connect coursework with internships, research, and next steps after graduation.
Designed for impact. The final Delta seminar helps you deliver a project that is portfolio-ready and meaningful to partners and communities.

You might focus your tags around themes like:

Sustainability and Resilience with local field experiences and applied projects.
Media and Public Communication with writing, storytelling, and audience engagement.
Data and Decisions with information literacy and quantitative reasoning.
Civic and Global Engagement with power and justice, policy, and intercultural learning.

Ready to Get Started?

Talk with your advisor to plan a Western Watershed pathway that complements your major and goals. Explore opportunities for service, field experiences, creative work, and research starting in your first semester.

970.934.2016

scoughlin@western.edu

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