Academic Catalog 2023-2024

The Concordia Community

For more than 100 years, Concordia has enjoyed a reputation for excellence as a liberal arts college of the church. Here you will be challenged to excel in an intellectually vibrant campus community where supportive faculty and staff nurture your development of mind, body, and spirit. Concordia’s strong liberal arts curriculum provides a breadth, depth, and appreciation of learning that prepares you to influence the affairs of an ever-changing world.

At Concordia, you’ll get to know the world in a personal way. As a national leader in the number of students studying abroad, Concordia offers powerful, firsthand learning experiences in places such as China, England, Greece, Italy, Mexico, and Tanzania – just about everywhere on the globe. These programs – designed for a week, month, semester, or academic year – will help you discover cultural and career connections that put you worlds ahead in preparing for life after college. Additionally, international students and students of color enrich the quality of community on campus with their many gifts and thoughtful perspectives. The world-renowned Concordia Language Villages in the nearby North Woods of Bemidji, Minn., provides one-of-a-kind language and culture immersion education experiences. Concordia’s distinctive and far-reaching emphasis on international learning broadens your perspective as a thoughtful and informed global citizen.

Concordia students discover their interests and get real-world experience through invaluable internships offered by hundreds of employers in virtually every field. Graduates of Concordia are versatile team players, outstanding leaders, excellent communicators, and problem-solvers.

Dynamic interaction between students and faculty is an integral part of the classroom experience at Concordia, where matters of faith, values, and ethics come to focus through thoughtful and spirited dialogue. As active scholars with a unique passion for classroom teaching, faculty take a personal interest in helping you succeed. Interaction with faculty may even include the opportunity to work side by side with a professor on a fascinating joint research project. Many students come to count on faculty as mentors – and friends – for life.

Concordia develops people of integrity who serve as leaders in their professions, communities, and churches. You will have the chance to be actively involved in projects that integrate academic study with efforts to be agents of social change in the community – locally and abroad. Concordia’s vibrant Campus Ministry program encourages spiritual growth through a variety of worship offerings and abundant outreach opportunities, including Justice Journeys, unique travel experiences focusing on meaningful interaction with people of faith from other cultures. Service and immersive travel provide just a few of the unique opportunities for vocational reflection and discernment, aiding students in developing their unique outlooks and capacities in transformative and relational experiences. Students are continually challenged by faculty to examine and develop their own personal sense of ethical responsibility. Concordia’s Lorentzsen Center for Faith and Work and Offutt School Presents events engage students, faculty, and community leaders through poignant dialogue concerning today’s most challenging ethical issues.

There are many other exceptional student activities designed to enrich your college experience. Many choose to participate in Concordia’s celebrated music program, which continues to build on its remarkable tradition of excellence. The Concordia Christmas Concerts, involving more than 400 student-musicians, attract thousands of people annually for performances on campus and at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Almost one-third of all students participate in one or more of Concordia’s 19 acclaimed performance ensembles, including the famed choirs, orchestras, and bands, which travel the United States annually and tour the world frequently. Performance excellence is intricately linked with academic learning to produce a refined blend of musical opportunities.

Hundreds of scholar-athletes choose to be in one or more of Concordia’s 22 highly competitive men’s and women’s varsity sports programs, which benefit from some of the finest small-college athletic facilities in the Upper Midwest. Concordia is also recognized nationally for excellence in speech. Similarly, many students also find prominent roles in theatre, student government, and dozens of student organizations. In all, students benefit from participation in more than 100 clubs and organizations.

Your unique contributions to academic, social, and spiritual life at Concordia will be warmly welcomed and greatly valued by the campus community. Prepare to experience excellence in all that you do here. Your educational journey promises to be challenging and rewarding – a four-year investment that pays dividends for a lifetime.