The Political Science Experience At Truman

Focusing on a high quality undergraduate education in a small classroom setting.

The Truman Political Science Experience must be understood in the context of our department’s mission: to create graduates who are nationally competitive for positions in graduate programs, law schools, government, and other professional positions.  We seek to instill in our students a sense of personal excellence and the habits of confident, life-long learners.  

For our first-year majors, the Truman Political Science Experience begins with a challenging introductory course that helps students transition to college and introduces them to a culture of small classes where professors know their names and support their learning in and out of the classroom.  The major follows a curriculum that intentionally develops knowledge, research abilities, communication talents, and higher order thinking skills.  Our students take courses exposing them to the breadth of the significant subfields in the discipline, and they also have the option to choose electives to delve deeper into their preferred areas of study.  Truman State students engage in undergraduate research in classes and beyond, working under the mentorship of one of the discipline’s outstanding faculty members.  In addition, many students present their research at regional or national conferences or at Truman’s annual undergraduate research conference.   

The Truman Political Science Experience also occurs in the context of Truman’s liberal arts culture that promotes the learning of languages, art, science, philosophy, religion, and many other disciplines that provide for an enriched quality of life as well as numerous connections to their major.  Other opportunities afforded Truman political science students include participation in internship programs, study abroad, and numerous leadership, community, and co-curricular activities.  This strong and varied educational grounding in and out of the classroom prepares our students for the deeper specialization they will develop after Truman – in graduate school, law school, government, the Foreign Service, their careers, and their intellectual lives.  In fact, our students have been placed into top law schools, top graduate programs in political science, and in the fields of government, education, and business – and they are highly successful.  The benefit and success of the Truman Political Science Experience is good for both the state of Missouri as well as our students and is manifest through the excellence found within our graduates as a result of an outstanding, affordable, liberal arts and sciences education.  

Participants in the 2009 Missouri Government Internship Program meet with Governor Jay Nixon in his office.