Tacoma Program

The Tacoma program is committed to providing its students with an interdisciplinary, reality-based, community-responsive liberal arts education. The program operates from a social justice frame of reference that values family, community, collaboration, inclusiveness, hospitality, reciprocity and academic excellence. Recognizing the importance of personal and professional growth, research and scholarship, as well as commitment to community and public service, the Tacoma program seeks to provide a catalytic climate for intellectual, cultural and social growth.

Evergreen’s educational approach provides a unique opportunity for students to go into local communities and engage in research, education and problem-solving projects that are as beneficial to those communities as they are to our students. The Tacoma program seeks to be a nexus for activities directed toward responding to community needs. We see ourselves as a resource not only for students, but also for the broader community. Within this context, we seek to promote service learning by linking students, faculty, staff and community members in community development, sustainability and well-being efforts.

Our emphases—interdisciplinary understanding and analysis, collaborative learning, cross-cultural communication, problem-solving, seeing the connections between global issues and personal or community action—provide our students with community-building tools that are needed and appreciated outside our campus.