My husband built his career in a Big Four consulting firm. Over the 16 years we’ve been together, I’ve learned a secondhand vocabulary of corporate buzzwords and skill trends—some useful, most, not so much.
Recently, after attending a leadership conference, my husband came home energized about “systems thinking,” which Forbes calls one of today’s most crucial leadership skills. At first, it sounded like the latest in a long line of self-aggrandizing slang—but the more I listened, the more I appreciated it.
Systems thinking isn’t just corporate jargon; it’s roots are actually in academia. Essentially, it is a framework for understanding how interconnected parts work together, so solutions address root causes rather than symptoms. It means seeing the patterns beneath the problem, recognizing the ripple effects of each decision, and designing solutions that serve the whole rather than patching one part.
Sound familiar? Any humanities educator worth their salt would say absolutely.
Systems thinking is a liberal arts education dressed in a suit and tie.
Core Curriculum as a System
Once you see it, the resemblance is obvious: a liberal arts’ core curriculum functions like a system. It’s made up of interconnected disciplines, each offering unique perspectives that together form a cohesive framework for learning. Just as systems thinking requires seeing the relationships between parts, a liberal arts core is designed to educate holistically—helping students link diverse fields, think critically, and approach problems from multiple angles.
As Cynthia Wells argues,
“General education can be transformative at this intersection of profession and big questions, helping undergraduates explore their passions, develop their convictions, deepen their awareness, and ultimately discern their calling—both for their careers and in their broader lives.”
I very much agree. As faculty and administrators, we have a more nuanced long-term understanding of the core curriculum than our students. Where they may see a checklist of impractical, disjointed requirements, we can easily spot vocational themes or big questions that map courses together. Ultimately, it comes down to making the structure feel logical from the student’s perspective.
Merging General Education and Vocation
At Dominican University, we’ve taken this aspiration to heart, developing a tracked interdisciplinary sustainability studies minor that builds directly on top of our core curriculum requirements. Essentially, we have taken Wells’ vision a step further: the program challenges students to channel their environmental conviction towards their career calling, while serving the student in fulfilling requirements. It shows them that all three—core requirements, a minor program, and vocation—can, and should, intersect.
From a nuts-and-bolts perspective, students must complete two science literacy courses for our core; for the minor they are required to take general biology with a lab and any environmental science course, which sets a foundation in the natural sciences. Students must also select two humanities and arts courses to examine how human creativity and communication shape change, with options in the minor program including Writing as Social Action and Public Rhetoric and Advocacy. Theological reflection comes through Environmental Theology, while a meaning, value, and truth requirement can be met with courses like Justice, Evil, and Crimes against Humanity.
In this light, the connection between core curriculum requirements and an interdisciplinary minor no longer feels like an innovation; it feels like a self-evident, efficient evolution higher education desperately needs to embrace.
By intentionally aligning core requirements, this minor, and vocation, we meet the call-to-action Monica Smith so eloquently issues in her essay in Vocation for the Common Good:
“When colleges and universities serve students by meeting their multiple needs, we also prepare them to serve society. As educators, we can disband the myth of independence by helping students understand that individual well-being is linked to the well-being of others. Individual and institutional contributions are both necessary and revealed in the many interdependent aspects of our lives.”
Leveraging a Core-Fulfilling Interdisciplinary Minor as a Vocational Tool
Which brings me to a guiding idea I’ve been sitting with: a major serves the student, but a minor should be built to serve the university and, by extension, the common good.
A major typically emphasizes technical proficiency, subject mastery, and career readiness within a specific field. In contrast, a well-designed interdisciplinary minor—especially in areas like sustainability, public health, or social justice—can anchor a student’s disciplinary learning while encouraging them to zoom out and see the bigger picture. The core curriculum at most liberal arts institutions already fosters connections across subjects; intentionally mapping courses together would help students grasp the full system and the deep interconnections among today’s challenges. After all, no leader will be able to address climate change without understanding basic biology, the power of rhetoric, and the convictions of a resolute moral compass.
When we frame education this way, systems thinking becomes more than a corporate buzzword. It becomes the connective tissue between what students study, who they become, and how they choose to contribute to our world once they leave our classrooms.
With countless think-pieces on the relevance of a college degree, leveraging a core-fulfilling minor as a vocational tool creates an elegant solution and, frankly, a more productive starting point.
Rethinking “What’s Your Major?”
In practice, I’ve never quite understood the hierarchy between majors and minors—especially since, when I registered students this summer, their schedules were already packed with core requirements. After years of working freshman orientation, I’ve learned that the question, “What’s your major?” is often the least helpful question we can ask new students. Most colleagues I know don’t even take their answer too seriously, as most will change.
Instead, what if we asked our ambitious, energetic high school graduates which world problem they’d like to explore solving—whether it be sustainability, global health, urban policy, LGBTQ+ and gender rights, or even AI ethics? And use their answer as an entry point for fulfilling their core requirements.
Ultimately, it’s essential that we ensure that the structure make sense from the student’s perspective, which would help us have a better answer when they inevitably ask, “Why do I have to take this?”
The Competitive Edge
Further, such an approach could even give our graduates a competitive edge in the job market. Pairing an interdisciplinary minor with a technical or professional major—such as, economics, nutrition, data science—signals to employers that graduates bring more than hard skills to their employment. In fact, students develop their creativity, analytical, and systems thinking from a liberal arts education—all of which are in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 top emerging skills list. And why C-Suite folks are turning to English majors, in lieu of finance and technology, for their innovation and creativity.
In a workforce increasingly demanding both hard and human skills, this combination of tactical expertise and moral ambition would be tough to beat.
By intentionally integrating these three areas—core, vocation, and the minor—we can equip students with the systems-thinking skills, ethical grounding, and career readiness they need—not only to succeed in the workplace, but to engage meaningfully with the world’s most pressing challenges.
Christine Wilson is currently a visiting instructor at Dominican University in River Forest, IL, where she teaches in the core curriculum and the English department. Her classroom work was recently published in Dynamic Activities for First-Year Composition (NCTE, 2023). In addition to her teaching roles, she also serves as the transitions faculty co-director and volunteers as chair of the sustainability committee. In this capacity, she spearheaded the university’s partnership with the Chicago Transit Authority, expanding access to affordable public transportation for hundreds of students. Her many vocations include parenting three young children and serving as a school volunteer and sustainability advocate. For other posts by Christine, click here.