Students get ready for an exciting year, among the first to join the new Founders College. Photo by Natalie Goo.

CHARLOTTE HARGROVE | STAFF REPORTER | chargrove@butler.edu

This August, students made Butler history as the first class of the new Butler University Founder’s College program. The two-year intensive program is designed for Indiana-based prospective students to receive an associate’s degree and give them an opportunity to obtain higher education. 

The Founder’s College focuses on the importance of student education and preparing students for the real world after graduation. Faculty and staff aim to make Butler’s campus a welcoming and inclusive environment for its new students. 

Kara Sabanski, a senior speech, language and hearing sciences major and a student orientation coordinator, spoke on her experiences with the Founder’s College students. Sabanski’s job was to welcome incoming Founders College students to campus and coordinate their orientation activities.

“We really made sure that Founder’s College students felt like they had a place on campus and that they weren’t being excluded from anything that our campus offers,” Sabanski said. “Throughout orientation week, we were tasked with staying at the Founders College suite during group time and just making sure that the students felt comfortable answering any questions that they had.”

The college offers many two-year programs, including business data analytics, business management studies, healthcare studies-clinical science, healthcare studies-medical coding and youth and community advocacy.

“[The] Founder’s College is a two-year associate’s degree,” Sabanski said. “[The students] go to school year-round. They do spring, fall and summer semesters and get their associate’s degree at the end of those two years.”

Students within the Founder’s College have access to a wide range of amenities on Butler’s campus, including the gym, library and many study spaces. 

Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, the Dean of the Founder’s College, discussed the importance of the program and what it has to offer. 

“We looked at costs as a factor and support as a factor, but also look at what are the high wage, high demand fields that students really need if they happen to find themselves not finishing a four-year [program] or wanting to,” Gentle-Genitty said. “Butler is a leader, we are continuing our mission of making sure that we’re [providing] bold education for all [by] thinking ahead and forging that process.”

The Founder’s College program works on a similar semester-based load, but with a more rigorous schedule similar to a four-year model. Instead, the program is pushed into two years, requiring students to work summers as well as during the year. 

The programs focus on preparing students for real-world experiences, and going above and beyond what they believe they can accomplish. 

“The students that we have invited to participate in this program are high-ability students,” Gentle-Genitty said. “They are top of their class, they’re doing really well and they see themselves going further and really excelling. These are students that we believe will be able to change what it means to be a university, and change what it means to be a learner.”

Founder’s College math professor Alex McGrath expressed his gratitude for the program and the opportunities it has created for everyone involved. 

“Everything that we do here is based [around] allowing students the opportunity to see real-world [job] practices in action,” McGrath said. “[Students] get their hands on what it’s like to be in these fields with relevant data and information… from a lot of local business partners and organizations who help us out and will be offering students internships. Our goal is to help them make that [career] transition as seamlessly as possible.”

McGrath described his students as engaged and ready to learn in their classes, and said that they are already starting to make connections and friendships around campus.

“I love teaching, I love seeing the students smile and laugh and get excited about what it is that we’re offering them,” McGrath said “Helping build this community has been one of the most amazing things I’ve done yet in my life.”