Bachelor of Arts in Humanities for Teaching

The Bachelor of Arts in Humanities for Teaching (BAHT) should be understood as a “pre-teaching” degree analogous to a “pre-law” or “pre-med” curriculum: a degree intended to give the best possible undergraduate preparation for subsequent professional training in a graduate school of education. The BAHT builds on the basic humanistic course work that is the hallmark of Matteo Ricci College but also adds two key elements: (1) course work and co-curricular activities designed and taught in collaboration with the Seattle University College of Education to provide optimal foundations and perspectives, theoretical and experiential, for those who plan to attend graduate school to become teachers in the K-12 schools; and (2) sophisticated individual advising to assure that students who will be seeking admission to a graduate school of education for teacher-training and certification have already completed, as undergraduates, the course work in specific academic disciplines to qualify them ideally for subject area endorsements (i.e., legal authority to teach particular subjects in the state or states of their choice once they have earned a teacher’s certificate through a master’s level program at Seattle University or elsewhere). Thus, students preparing for the BAHT will be guided in taking advantage of the rich breadth of courses available throughout Seattle University so as to maximize their subsequent attractiveness first to graduate schools of education and then to school districts, as well as to make them excellent teachers and effective leaders within their communities. For those students who might ultimately decide not to pursue teaching as a career, the BAHT offers a broad training in the liberal arts, which should serve the student well in many professions and vocations.