Your major gives you depth. Pathways helps you build skills you can use anywhere.
Don’t just DO Gen Ed.
Do something with it.
Your major will teach you a lot about one field. But your life and career will ask more of you than what you know in one subject. You will work with people who think differently. You will face problems that do not come with instructions. Technology will keep changing. Jobs will change. You will need to keep learning, adapting, communicating and figuring things out.
That is why General Education matters.
Four years goes fast, and at Plymouth State we take that time seriously. We respect your time too much to make Gen Ed a collection of unrelated courses you simply have to get through.
Pathways-HoME turns General Education into a journey. You build a foundation, choose an area of skill you want to develop, practice it in different ways, earn a certificate and bring your learning together in a Signature Project.
The goal is simple: graduate with more than a major. Graduate more ready for whatever comes next.
Why take classes outside your major?
Because the world does not organize itself by major.
• A nurse has to communicate clearly, solve problems and work with people from different backgrounds.
• A business professional has to understand people, conflict, ethics, data and change.
• A scientist has to explain complex ideas to people who are not scientists.
• An artist or designer has to collaborate, adapt and understand audiences.
• Every graduate will need to learn new tools and new ways of working throughout a career.
General Education gives you room to practice those abilities outside the boundaries of one major. Pathways makes that practice intentional.
Your Pathways Journey
Begin with writing, mathematics and Tackling a Wicked Problem. Start practicing the abilities you will keep using throughout college.
Choose an area you want to get better at. It can support your major, complement it or take you somewhere completely different.
Practice the skill through different courses, situations and perspectives.
Complete the Pathway requirements and earn a certificate in a skill area outside your major.
Bring what you have learned together in Signature Project, working with students from different fields on a project with real-world relevance.
What do you want to get better at?
| CREATE: Aesthetic Expression Create, perform and communicate through art, design, media and imagination. | COMMUNICATE: Communicating Strategically Make ideas clear, persuasive and meaningful for different audiences. |
| LEAD: Coordinating Organizations Understand how people, teams and organizations work together and move ideas forward. | THRIVE: Creating Holistic Wellness Explore the many factors that shape human health and well-being. |
| EXPLORE: Engaging the Natural World Understand the natural world and our relationship with it. | RESOLVE: Managing Conflict Understand disagreement and learn how to move toward productive solutions. |
| CONNECT: Navigating Cultures Work more effectively with people whose experiences and perspectives differ from your own. | ANALYZE: Quantitative Inquiry Use numbers, data and evidence to investigate questions and make decisions. |
| DISCOVER: Qualitative Inquiry Use observation, stories and other evidence to understand people, places and experiences. | DECIDE: Reasoning Ethically Think carefully about values, choices and complex questions without simple answers. |
Four abilities you build all the way through
Plymouth State calls them Habits of Mind. You can think of them as four things you want to be able to do well no matter where your career takes you.
Communicate with Purpose
Say what you mean, understand your audience, listen well and make ideas matter.
Solve Problems
Figure out what the real problem is, consider different possibilities, try solutions and adapt when something changes.
See the Bigger Picture
Look beyond one point of view and understand how people, systems, history and context connect.
Keep Learning
Set goals, learn from mistakes, adjust and keep developing as the world around you changes.
Your major + something more
The Pathway does not replace your major. It adds to it. For example:
- Environmental Science + Communicating Strategically: know the science and explain why it matters.
- Business + Managing Conflict: understand organizations and know how to lead through disagreement.
- Nursing + Navigating Cultures: provide excellent care and work more effectively across different experiences and perspectives.
- Art + Coordinating Organizations: create strong work and understand how teams and organizations move ideas forward.
These are examples, not prescribed pairings. The point is choice: build something that makes your education more fully yours.
What about the requirements?
Pathways-HoME is the General Education program for Plymouth State undergraduates. The program includes your first-year foundation, Pathways Skills courses and the four-credit Signature Project. At least 15 credits used to earn a Pathways Certificate are completed outside your major.
Already bringing college credit with you? Approved transfer and equivalent courses may satisfy parts of the program. Already well into your Plymouth State journey? Your advisor can help you see what you have completed, what still remains and the best way to finish without losing sight of the larger purpose.
For exact course requirements, course designations and transfer policies, use the official Plymouth State course catalog and work with your academic advisor.
Ready to choose courses?
When you are ready to register, Plymouth State's HoME Courses Registration Information page brings current course descriptions and days and times together in one place.
For Fall 2026, the page includes registration information for:
First-Year Experience
Tackling A Wicked Problem
Composition
Math Foundations
Directions
Creative Thought
Past-Present
Scientific Inquiry
Self-Society
Connections
Global
Diversity
Wellness
INCP
Integrated Capstone courses
Course offerings change by term, so use the registration page for the current schedule and the academic catalog for official program requirements.
Build skills. Earn a certificate. Put them to work.
You will graduate into a world that keeps changing. We cannot know every tool you will use, every problem you will face or every job you will have. But we can help you become someone who knows how to learn, think, communicate, collaborate and adapt.
That is what General Education is for. That is what Pathways is built to do.
Don't just DO Gen Ed. Do something with it.
