Thanks to its new partnership with Rize Education, Wittenberg is now enrolling students in its recently approved neuroscience major for the Spring 2023 semester.
The neuroscience major will be the third new track as part of the Rize partnership built in collaboration with the Lower Cost Models Consortium (LCMC). The other tracks are within Wittenberg’s management major and include supply chain management and project management. All these new tracks will make use of courses available through the LCMC on the Rize platform.
Olivia Norbut, class of 2024 from Grove City, Ohio, is one of the first current students who plans to take advantage of the new program and declare a major in neuroscience.
“I am thrilled that the neuroscience major passed because not only does this program provide me with the opportunity to receive a degree in what I am most passionate about, but it also provides future students, who have yet to discover that neuroscience is what lights their ‘fire,’ with the same opportunity,” she said. “When I engaged in the [First Year Research Award program] my freshman year, I did not expect to love what I was doing so much or look so forward to my classes as much as I did. Then when I started taking psychology classes on top of my biology courses, I fell even more in love with the nexus of psychology and biology, what we call ‘neuroscience.’ Now that neuroscience is a major, I can continue to apply what I have learned in doing research, as well as deepen my understanding of the science of the brain. Plus, now that this program is offered, it gives Wittenberg a competitive edge for prospective students interested in pursuing a major in STEM fields.”
Rize, a higher education company, utilizes a course-sharing model that helps private colleges and universities expand educational opportunities for students while streamlining and lowering institutional costs. The Rize consortium helps schools create new shared majors, using top-quality curricula developed and taught by leading experts from industry and academia. With the help of Rize, Wittenberg can adopt high-demand programs. The LCMC is a strategic partnership of private colleges and universities across the country collaborating with Rize Education to provide access to a cutting-edge curriculum that prepares students for successful careers.
A multidisciplinary degree, Wittenberg’s new neuroscience major is designed to be a job-focused and an innovative degree that allows students to pursue a wide variety of careers. Often utilized as a premedical degree and for those interested in psychology or psychiatry, neuroscience opportunities in the 21st century have expanded far beyond, with roles in tech, finance, healthcare, consumer products, government and more, according to Rize. This project-based and portfolio-building curriculum is designed to help students produce a powerful resume before graduation, and ensure the opportunity to stand out to hiring managers in any field.
“We are excited to have a neuroscience major that will prepare our students for their career goals by requiring them to have either first an internship or research experience before they graduate, and second, to have the opportunity to take advanced neuroscience courses, through our Rize partnership, that most other small liberal arts college cannot offer,” said Michelle McWhorter, associate professor of biology and director of the neuroscience program.
Students with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, according to Rize, are well suited to take on roles as laboratory technicians, law enforcement professionals, health educators, and technical writers: all jobs that offer a salary well above the national median and are experiencing job growth above the national average according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.
In order to keep up with workforce demands, Wittenberg will also be looking at other academic programs, including those surrounding health and public health in partnership with Rize.
About the Lower Cost Models Consortium (LCMC)The LCMC is a national consortium of over 130 fully accredited, non-profit colleges and universities formed in 2015. Members of the LCMC are committed to working together to address the challenges of increasing costs in higher education by implementing innovative programs and reducing institutional costs for these programs to pass along savings to students. In this way, the LCMC hopes to develop new models of higher education that benefit students while simultaneously contributing to the sustainability of accredited, nonprofit, 4-year institutions.
