Oak Valley College achieves its mission when you master the following Program Learning Outcomes:

1. Business Practice - Defined as the core principles in business (e.g. marketing, accounting, finance, etc.) applied to theoretical or practical situations that demonstrate a student’s knowledge, passion, and comprehension of the business concepts in a situational context.

2. Written Communication - The development and expression of ideas in writing. Written communication involves learning to work in many genres and styles. It can involve working with many different writing technologies, and mixing texts, data, and images. Written communication abilities develop through iterative experiences across the curriculum.

3. Quantitative Literacy - Reflects competency and comfort in working with numerical data. Strong quantitative literacy skills include: the ability to reason and solve quantitative problems from a wide array of authentic contexts and everyday situations, creating sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence in a variety of formats using words, tables, graphs, mathematical equations, as appropriate.

4. Biblical Literacy and Christian Worldview - Rooted in the ability to analyze and synthesize themes, historical perspectives, and the contextual framing of Bible accounts and lessons. A Christian worldview emerges by applying that wisdom to the modern world in specific situations and circumstances using supporting evidence found in the Bible.

5. Oral Communication - Prepared, purposeful presentations designed to increase knowledge, to foster understanding, or to promote change in the listeners' attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.

6. Critical Thinking - A habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion, sometimes characterized as deep thought, or thoughtful consideration of the problem/challenge presented.

7. Creative Problem Solving - Involves the capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways and the experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking. This is then followed by the process of designing, implementing, and evaluating a strategy to answer an open-ended problem or achieve a desired goal.

8. Lifelong Learning - All purposeful learning activity, undertaken on an ongoing basis with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence. An endeavor of higher education is to prepare students to be this type of learner by developing specific dispositions and skills described in this rubric while in school.

9. Information Literacy - Ability to know when there is a need for information, especially as it pertains to academic sources, and be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand.

Business education is well established in higher education. The core standards for your success focus on key management functions, including the ability to effectively communicate (writing and presentations), and the ability to manage people, processes, and projects. Within Oak Valley’s business major you explore these topics in courses covering both quantitative and qualitative disciplines. The outcome is a well-rounded focus on business education with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. The business courses cover half of the program (64 units). You dig deep into a broad range of business topics, including marketing, accounting, project and operations management, human resources, economics, statistics, finance, leadership, and more (click here).

While your success is often measured in numbers, the leaders at Oak Valley focus on your individual success. Every student has a compelling story and passion to be more and do more. Your story is often captured through focus groups or student biographies. Even more telling is to meet with other students and hear where they started and how they have matured through their education at Oak Valley College. Come for a campus visit, apply and become one of Oak Valley’s next generation of leaders!

General education at Oak Valley exposes you to the rich history and culture that defines a liberal arts education. Upon completing the general education courses, an Oak Valley College graduate will be able to:

1. Demonstrate the ability to learn independently

2. Apply critical thinking, creative problem solving, and analytical skills to everyday situations and challenges

3. Communicate effectively in writing and speech in a professional setting

4. Display information literacy, including the ability to effectively evaluate and validate academic and business research through library resources

General education at Oak Valley College encompasses all coursework that is not part of the business core, including:

• Theology - Old Testament and New Testament Survey, Systematic Theology, and Spiritual Formation. These courses cover history, theology, and spiritual disciplines that help students develop a great appreciation of the Bible, Christian traditions and beliefs, and personal spirituality.

• Liberal arts - history, government, math, economics, science, philosophy, literature, art, and music are core disciplines that every student should experience as part of a liberal arts education. These courses have long been a part of Western education, and the tradition of developing competencies in these subjects make for a well-rounded educational experience