Innovative Classes
Innovative Delivery of Content
In addition to special facilities and programs, the ILC academic model also encourages innovative and creative content delivery which makes the classroom experience more diverse, interdisciplinary and effective. Here are just a few examples of such opportunities:
Experiential Learning 
Teaching Across Cultures
Educators normally work with children in an environment that isolates them from the other aspects of their daily life. An effective teacher needs to be aware of the influences that make each of their charges distinctive. The Teacher Education Program at Rochester College provides a unique immersion field experience, developed to build cross-cultural understanding and competence in pre-service teachers. It provides an opportunity to work with children in both their home and school environments allowing them to see the interaction of both of these aspects of children’s lives. Teacher candidates live at the Murrow Indian Children’s Home and work in the public schools of Muskogee, Oklahoma for a period of two weeks. This allows them to examine the roots of diversity from a community perspective, learn how culture influences and interrelates with success in school, and to become teachers of understanding with Christian values and hearts to serve.
World Religions
Every Spring semester, as part of a World Religions class, Rochester College students participate in a number of field trips in which they are introduced to the major religious traditions. Religious sites and communities are visited throughout in the Metro Detroit area as well as during a three day trip to Chicago. Experiences include visiting a large Pakistani Mosque, having a tour of one of Detroit’s largest synagogues, observing a chanting session at a Buddhist Temple, sharing a meal with our hosts at a Sikh Gurdwara, and visiting one of the world’s most impressive religious structures in the Baha’i House of Prayer. Through these experiences students gather facts, meet people, and learn to how to interact with different traditions faithfully and graciously.