Intellectual Autobiography

Congratulations! You made it! You are now a university student. Over the next four years, you'll become an expert in a particular field of knowledge, but more importantly, you will gain the skills and abilities you need to be a lifelong learner. William Cronon's "Only Connect: The Goals of a Liberal Education" describes ten qualities that he believes higher education should cultivate. As you embark on your higher educational journey, what qualities do you think are important to develop?

An intellectual autobiography outlines your beliefs and values about the purposes of higher education. It traces your personal development and highlights the educational and life experiences that helped shape you into the learner you are today. An intellectual autobiography not only looks backwards, it also projects forward, identifying where and who you'd like to be in the future. In other words, what do you hope to gain from a university education?

Your intellectual autobiography should be fairly short and concise. I estimate that most papers will be about 3-4 pages long, but you won't have points deducted if your paper is less than 3 pages or goes over 4. You want it to be long enough to fully develop your ideas, but not so long that it has to be read in more than one sitting!

Your paper should identify what you value in education. It should address the past (How did you develop your ideas/values/approach to education?), present (What kind of learner are you today?) and future (What would you like to gain from your education?). Please use clear examples from your life or educational experiences to support your ideas. You can also borrow ideas from other scholars, like William Cronon, but please make sure that you cite their work.

Since this is a personal narrative, it is fine to use the first person "I' in your work. Your professor is obviously the reader of your paper, but when you think about who you are writing this for, think of our entire class community. It's okay to write with less formal language than you would use in a research paper, but remember that you are still writing for an audience that you want to have a professional, working relationship with, so avoid using slang or profanity. Please type your paper, double-spaced using a standard 12 point font. Don't forget to spell-check it and then proofread to catch any errors the computer might have missed.