Aspirations for Student Learning

Virginia Tech students will be inspired to lead lives of curiosity, embracing a life-long commitment to intellectual development.

The Virginia Tech student affairs experience seeks to instill the value that learning is the common essential element for intellectual development, discovery, and engagement, instead of a necessary means to a specified end. Virginia Tech believes that all environments of the college experience provide countless opportunities for learning. Student organizations, service projects, classrooms, residence and dining halls, student centers, leader development programs, cultural and recreational events, and many other planned and spontaneous encounters at Virginia Tech, cumulatively represent a vibrant learning laboratory for students.

Virginia Tech students will form a set of affirmative values and develop the self-understanding to integrate these values into their decision-making.

Virginia Tech students will experience, explore, and understand the values and principles of their families, communities, and the many cultures they encounter. As students better understand themselves, their strengths and interests, and align their values with purposeful decision-making they will adopt an integrated set of principles to guide their personal and professional lives.

Virginia Tech students will understand and commit to civility as a way of life in their interactions with others.

Living and learning as individuals who believe in the Principles of Community and Hokies Respect, students will pursue and embrace the value of civility which will be carried throughout life. At the heart of this pursuit is a basic commitment to consideration, respect, and courtesy. Civility is a shared gift that we give and receive in turn. Accordingly, civility expects that: we strive to listen, as well as to speak to each other; we try to understand each other in our commonalities and differences; we give respect due to all members of the university community; we favor courtesy over rudeness and encourage considerate treatment over dismissive behavior; and we combine free speech with reasoned expression so that liberty and peace are both served.

Virginia Tech students will be courageous leaders who serve as change agents and make the world more humane and just.

Virginia Tech students will be courageous leaders who are willing to challenge the status quo in pursuit of a more humane and just world. They will have the fortitude to speak up when they witness an injustice and reach out to those who are vulnerable, marginalized, or in need. Courageous leadership is possible whether or not the individual is in a position of responsibility. Virginia Tech students will inspire others with their actions, changing the world one decision at a time.

Virginia Tech students will enrich their lives through service to others.

The university motto, Ut Prosim – That I May Serve, and the Principles of Community will stand as a foundation for the development ofpersonal relationships, physical spaces, and intercultural experiences, which create communities. Within, these communities compel students to understand and develop a value system that will guide their decisions and enable them to offer themselves as responsible citizens of the world.