Mission Statement
Saybrook University provides rigorous graduate education that inspires transformational change in individuals, organizations, and communities, toward a just, humane, and sustainable world.
Core Principles and Values
- We value life and embrace our responsibility to facilitate the potential of every living being to thrive in a just, inclusive, healthy and sustainable world.
- We are scholar-practitioners who seek and apply knowledge to solve problems and foster social transformation.
- We live and conduct our affairs with integrity. We hold ourselves accountable for honoring commitments to ourselves and to one another, to Saybrook University, and to the constituencies and communities within which we live and work, including the natural world.
- We insist upon operational and academic rigor in order to provide an exceptional educational experience for you.
- We seek diversity because we recognize that there are many ways of knowing and there are inherent strengths in multiple perspectives.
- We approach what we do with a system, or holistic, perspective based on a belief in the inherent interconnection of all things.
- We create relationships and communities built on compassion, respect, authentic voice, deep listening, reflective awareness, support and challenge leading to responsible action.
- We are creative, risk-taking leaders who challenge assumptions and imagine new possibilities.
- We recognize that dynamic tensions and fundamental paradoxes are essential aspects of being human and we commit to find ways to work with them productively.
- We celebrate life, striving to bring fun and joy to our individual and collective existence.
Our Community
Across the world, members of Saybrook University’s global community - alumni, students, and faculty - are working, studying, and making a difference.
They are transforming healthcare, providing organizational leadership, developing sustainable practices for businesses and communities, nurturing cross-cultural understanding, counseling and caring for populations in need, and revitalizing communities.
They are united not by location, but by ideas, and the commitment to being part of a humane and sustainable world.
Faculty member Joel Federman is working with activists around the globe to study how technology is changing social justice movements, while student Bill West uses humanistic psychology to reduce violence in the LA prison system.
Alumna Sylvia Boorstein is a bestselling author on meditation who helped found the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, while student Kelly Hudson owns a day care center in a small community. Alumna Gloria Burgess is a leading business consultant who works with companies that want to be socially and fiscally responsible.
Alumna Lois Koteen is a consultant who helps traditional synagogues better connect with 21st century parishioners and adjust their governing structure to be more democratic, while faculty member Marie DiCowden is a leading voice in the struggle to reform America’s health care system, and student Nicholas Mang is studying the psychology of local governments that embrace transformative change.
Saybrook University empowers every member of its community to follow their passion, pursue their life’s work, and dedicate themselves to a life of service and success - whether on the world stage or a small town.
Scholarship in Action
The World Needs Leaders Who Can Help it Change
Saybrook University is committed not only to scholarship and research in addressing critical human issues, but also to action. It is our mission to help you turn theory into practice, capable of performing research and creating transformative change.
To meet the challenges we face as a society, we at Saybrook recognize that we must change not just our technology, but ourselves. Saybrook embraces the notion that education is more than just applied learning. It is also transformation, giving us a better view of who we are and what we can accomplish in the world.
Transformational education is not static, but a continuous process. To be educated, we must be “life-long learners.” Saybrook University is therefore dedicated to supporting its alumni along with its current students, offering them opportunities to continue their research, expand their work, and connect with other leaders in their field.
For more information on how to pursue this remarkable form of education at Saybrook, fill out a request form today.
Approach to Research
As a Saybrook student, you will undertake rigorous analysis and development of your ideas in search of new synergies and insights. Often this will take you outside of conventional wisdom. We encourage you to ask uncomfortable questions that push boundaries, provided you do so in a rigorous way.
Our approach to research is closely aligned with the human science perspective that there is no single privileged position from which to understand the human experience or the world around us. As such, Saybrook University embraces both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Phenomenological investigation, case studies, interviews, naturalistic observation, and hermeneutics all provide critical insight that more traditional quantitative methods cannot. Effective use of such techniques are key to addressing many of the most complex problems of our time, and we will encourage you to utilize them to find the humanity behind statistics, charts, and graphs.
We value rigorous inquiry, analysis, evidence, clarity and integrity in scholarship and research. Through this engagement, you will develop an important foundation in critical thinking, disciplined inquiry, the generation of new ideas, and the ability to contribute creatively to your chosen area of study.
Learning Models
At Saybrook University we commit ourselves to scholarship and research in addressing critical human issues. It is our mission to help you put theory into practice, capable of performing research and guiding your application to create transformative change. For more information on how to pursue a transformative education at Saybrook, fill out a request form today.
As a Saybrook student, you will undertake rigorous analysis and development of your ideas in search of new synergies and insights. Often this will take you outside of conventional wisdom. We encourage you to ask questions that push boundaries, provided you do so in a rigorous way. Excellent scholarship often involves asking uncomfortable questions.
Our approach to research is closely aligned with the human science perspective that there is no single privileged position from which to understand the human experience or the world around us. As such, Saybrook University embraces both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Phenomenological investigation, case studies, interviews, naturalistic observation, and hermeneutics provide critical insight that more traditional quantitative methods cannot. Effective use of such techniques are key to addressing many of the most complex problems of our time, and we will encourage you to utilize them to find the humanity behind statistics, charts, and graphs.
We value rigorous inquiry, analysis, evidence, clarity and integrity in scholarship and research. Through this engagement, you will develop an important foundation in critical thinking, disciplined inquiry, the generation of new ideas, and the ability to contribute creatively to an area of study.
Saybrook Pedagogy to Online Learning
Saybrook Best Practices for Online Learning takes into account both the faculty and learner roles in co-creating community in the Virtual Learning Environment. The elements of the best practices are; Responsible use of communication, Subject matter, Qualitative focus, Community/group dynamics, Personal reflection/group dialogue, Shared responsibility for learning, and skilled use of technology. Saybrook has used a high touch point approach to the acceptance and integration of these elements into our teaching culture. In addition to the Humanistic values that guide this approach, there have been many technology changes in a short period of time that have necessitated this approach. Through this high touch approach, Saybrook has evolved from its first online courses which were a heavy text based model, to interaction and images in all courses, with an increasing number of courses using multimedia, streaming audio/video and live audio/video, presentations, communication and discussion. In our affiliation with The Community Solution Education System (TCSES), we now have access to a team of instructional designers to continue improving upon the earlier work.
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