The SOAR curriculum is anchored in a transdisciplinary, liberal arts foundation at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. The program offers both a core curriculum and the ability to enroll in elective university courses across a variety of disciplines. The SOAR core curriculum is built around reflection, life design, and self-development, and is supplemented with SOAR activities that support community, learning, well-being, and societal impact. The program provides the opportunity to Seek, Observe, Act, and Renew for those who are looking to create the next step in their lives.
Claremont Graduate University and the Claremont Colleges provide a rich academic environment, ideal for exploration, inspiration, and intergenerational learning. Fellows should also expect regularly to venture out for field trips and diverse learning opportunities around Claremont and the LA metro area.
The SOAR Program encourages you not only to focus on your own life journey but to engage actively and thoughtfully with the world around you to discover “what needs doing.” We aim to connect you with the critical challenges facing the world today as well as to your own sense of purpose: to inspire you to impact the world in a way that matters to you.
This includes supporting international engagement and cultivating a global, inclusive, and expansive worldview through our curriculum and activities. The SOAR Program does this through partnerships with other institutions, projects, speakers, and the opportunity to take one international learning trip during the program.
Finally, engagement means connecting with, learning from, and supporting your cohort of similarly motivated people from a wide range of backgrounds, who also are defining their next step.
As a fellow in the SOAR Program, you will:
As a fellow, you will take an integrated SOAR curriculum across two semesters. Five short modules form this curriculum:
As a SOAR fellow, you will select Elective Courses in departments around the university to supplement the core SOAR programming. This coursework provides the opportunity to explore new and old interests, get inspired with new ideas, and craft a future that excites you. An additional benefit of elective coursework is the intergenerational learning you will experience in the classroom with typically younger graduate and undergraduate students.
A full-year Speaker Series with diverse professionals, leaders, and academics will complement the work you do in the classroom. Speakers are selected to stimulate ideas and connections across disciplines, to offer practical insights about different kinds of life pursuits, and to inspire different approaches to having positive societal impact.
The SOAR program enables fellows to connect themselves and their journey to the complex challenges facing our world. Fellows will engage in Societal Impact activities that allow them to explore their passions, learn about critical challenges facing the world, have an immediate impact, and begin to craft what they want to do next. Our collective interest in Societal Impact will be supported by the SOAR curriculum as well as speakers and general networking opportunities.
Fellows will be supported to build close connections within their cohort and to network across the Claremont Consortium and all its partners. We know from research and experience that having community with others who are engaged in a similar life pursuit is essential to the process of exploration and growth: it creates support, spurs new ideas, and generates opportunities. Community-building elements of the program are:
In addition to fostering community and purpose, which are critical components of wellness, the SOAR program creates access to regular programing for physical, spiritual, and mental well-being. The suite of offerings includes both educational programing and practice to support the fellows’ journey to greater wellness.
The SOAR Program is a 9-month, in-person program delivered in Claremont, CA. Fellows should expect to be on campus 2-4 days each week depending on the courses they select. The program begins in late August and runs through mid-May. Each week has core programming for SOAR Fellows in addition to dinners, cohort events and activities, and elective courses of each fellow’s choosing. Core classes and events will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday each week.
As a fellow, you should also expect regularly to venture out for field trips, diverse learning opportunities around Claremont and the LA metro area. With its emphasis on international engagement and having an expansive worldview the SOAR Program also includes one international trip during the Spring Semester Break. We encourage fellows to allow 7 days for travel.
The full fee for the 2023-24 program is $50,000. This includes all SOAR on-campus activities, dinners, speakers, classes, and field trips. It also includes on-campus parking, books and class materials for SOAR classes, and tickets for relevant class outings as well as lodging, food, and local transportation for the program’s international trip. The fee does not include the cost for housing in or travel to Claremont, or the travel expense for the international trip.
Costs for the program are reviewed annually and may change the program fee for future cohorts.
Dean, School of Arts & Humanities
Director, Early Modern Studies Program
Director, Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards
Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and History
Chair, Cultural Studies (Fall 2022)
Associate Professor of Practice
Founding Director, Executive Mind Leadership Institute
The inaugural cohort will begin the SOAR program in August of 2023. Admissions for the program will be open from December 15, 2022, through July 31, 2023.