Selecting Students for Personal and Professional Growth Programs: The Bailey Scholars Experience

Current pedagogy recognizes the need to help students learn the cognitive, affective, social, and spiritual skills required by successful citizens and lifelong learners. The Bailey Scholars Program is a 21 -credit-hour, undergraduate specialization (minor) in connected learning in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University. It is designed specifically to encourage student growth in those cognitive, affective, social and spiritual skills that are typically undeveloped in disciplinary majors. Bailey faculty designed a student selection process reflecting Bailey values, particularly that individual scholars would be learning in a community yet taking responsibility for their own learning journeys. The result was a self-selection process that provided various exposures of the Bailey learning style and community to student applicants, but ultimately relied on each studentʹs judgement to determine if Bailey fit his/her individual needs. Both faculty and admitted students view the selection process as a success. The most important factor contributing to this success may be the close correspondence between the design and execution of the selection process, and Bailey values.