Overview

• SNL enrolled 2,012 undergraduate and 119 graduate students on four campuses in metropolitan Chicago for the 2009-2010 academic year. The average student is 36 years old, works full-time and attends classes part-time. Since 1998, more than 4,100 students have successfully earned bachelor's and master's degrees through SNL. 

• SNL's innovative approach to teaching the adult student, which gives students credit for what they have learned from life experience, has earned it international acclaim as a leader in the field of education for adults.

• SNL's undergraduate program has been fully available on the Internet since 2001. In fall 2008, 39 percent of SNL students were taking at least one class online. In terms of credit hours, 36 percent were being taught online. Students from around the world can take classes and meet with advisors via the Internet and phone.

Distinctions

• SNL was named one of six "Best Practice" institutions in North America by the Chicago-based Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.

• The Houston-based American Productivity and Quality Center has touted SNL for its individualized education of adult students. 

• In his book "Lifelong Learning at Its Best" author William Maehl cites SNL for its comprehensive advising component, which he says is key to the educational process. 

• SNL professor Miriam Ben-Yoseph was named the 2006 Illinois Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The U.S. Professors of the Year competition recognizes faculty who demonstrate an extraordinary dedication to undergraduate teaching. Ben-Yoseph teaches courses and conducts research in the areas of culture, gender and work. More recently she has focused her teaching and writing on the Holocaust and on cultural homelessness and identity issues. 

Programs

• SNL offers bachelor of arts degrees with individualized focus areas. Graduate programs include a master's degree in applied professional studies, a master of arts degree in educating adults and a master of science degree in applied technology.

• In fall 2008, SNL launched two new joint degrees – a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education with the School of Education, and a bachelor’s degree in general business with the College of Commerce – to provide students with more options. Other joint degrees include the bachelor’s degree in computing and master's degree in applied technology, both with the College of Computing and Digital Media; and the bachelor’s degree in nursing with the Department of Nursing.

• SNL’s Adult Bridge Program has been helping adult learners make a smooth transition from Harry S. Truman College to DePaul for 16 years, and has expanded to Wright College in 2008. The program provides a unique learning environment that is student-centered and faculty- and administration-supported and nurtures academic growth and personal empowerment.

• The only program of its kind in the nation, SNL's  Chronic Illness Initiative offers students with chronic illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, heart disease, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, among others, services that can help them successfully complete a college degree. The initiative provides students with such options as special advisor/advocates, peer mentoring distance learning and scholarships. The program quadrupled in size in its first three years and now serves almost 200 students with chronic illnesses. Thus far, 15 people in the program have graduated from DePaul.

• In addition to offering classes on campus, SNL designs customized programs for corporate partners. These undergraduate and graduate certificate programs are taught by DePaul faculty on-site at companies. To date, SNL has partnered with such companies as Allstate Insurance Co., CNA, United Parcel Service, Building Owners and Managers Institute, United Steel Workers and the International Bank of Asia in Hong Kong. 

• In December 2008, the first cohort of adult students will graduate from the Tangaza College/DePaul University bachelor's degree program in Nairobi, Kenya, aimed at enabling graduates to assume leadership and management roles in their religious communities and social service organizations in Kenya. Underwritten by a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the program gives students engaged in human service ministries in Kenya a range of practical knowledge that they can then apply to the real-world challenges they face in their ministries. It also provides them with a solid theological and pastoral foundation for their unique vocation in the church and/or community and a well-rounded liberal arts education to better understand the increasingly complex needs of the people they serve.

• In June 2008, SNL graduated 26 students in the second cohort in the master of arts in applied professional studies program for teachers at St. Gabriel's College in Bangkok, Thailand. Offered collaboratively with Assumption University in Bangkok, the program affords teachers the opportunity to design and implement strategies to enable adults and youth to learn well in an global context.

• In 2008, SNL graduated its first cohort of students from its master of arts in educating adults degree program, launched in 2005 to teach students how to help adults learn.

• SNL's Center for Urban Education works to improve Chicago Public Schools through programs that involve principals, teachers and parents in schoolwide and inter-school development work. In 2007, the center received a two-year, $400,000 grant from the Polk Bros. Foundation to launch the Community Schools Leadership Network. The network creates opportunities for principals, teachers and parents to expand the Chicago Public Schools'  Community School Initiative. The center also provides curriculum frameworks and instructional guidance to 50 Chicago public elementary schools in two high-poverty areas and is preparing curriculum for CPS students to study the Burnham Plan of Chicago, which marks its centennial in 2009.

• SNL's Labor Education Center began offering workshops on worker rights in Spanish aimed at educating Hispanic workers in fall 2008. The center also received a $46,000 grant from the Regina V. Polk Fund for Labor Leadership to run a three-day program educating students about labor unions and collective bargaining at many Illinois high schools and a technical college. In addition, the Center offers a three-year certificate that trains thousands of Chicago-area union leaders to organize and represent the interests of union employees who face such issues as deregulation, privatization, surface bargaining, plant closings and union busting. 

• SNL's Center to Advance Education for Adults engages diverse communities to improve adult education practice by providing a venue for researchers and practitioners to study and share the most effective and imaginative strategies for educating adults in a wide range of settings.

About the Dean

• Marisa Alicea was named dean of SNL in April 2008, after serving as interim dean since July 2007. She writes and teaches about issues related to U.S. Latinos and holds a doctorate in sociology from Northwestern University.

SNL's Web site is : http://www.snl.depaul.edu/