Foundations in The New Liberal Arts

A plurality of ideas. People. Books. Culture. The greatest leaders and advocates. The most radical thinkers and doers. The experimenters. The arguers. The individuals who dared to speak out and act up.

Read and discuss the famous authors you keep coming across: Homer, Plato, Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci, al-Ghazali, Descartes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Hannah Arendt, Martin Luther King Jr., Edward Said, Chinua Achebe, etc.

Your classes will cover three main disciplines – English/Comparative Literature, History, and Philosophy – but the program offers you the chance to direct your own learning and study topics you are passionate about. Your Independent/Integrated Research Project is one you choose yourself, supervised by a faculty member, and with feedback from your classmates. You are in charge of your own education! TNLA lets you sample different subjects so you can confidently choose what excites you the most in your second year. TNLA actively encourages your creativity and individuality to tackle the complexities of the contemporary world. We want to cultivate your voice, your ideas, your plans.

TNLA faculty work closely together to avoid stress and assignment overload. The integrated programming means you have only one essay or one test in the program rather than 3 essays or 3 tests if you are taking three separate courses. In second term, you spend the entire term devoted to one single research paper. This streamlines your research and study schedule.

As part of the “fun factor,” TNLA offers hands-on learning opportunities through cultural events and outings such as the Hallowe’en Renaissance Feast and the annual trips to Stratford and Toronto. Students visit art exhibits, attend theatre productions and concerts, visit the opera and symphony, and have guided sessions out in the local London community. Click here to see the coming semester’s planned excursions.

The end-of-year Capstone Conference celebrates and consolidates your knowledge and skills base. TNLA organizes a formal, professional conference of selected papers at the end of the year. Students participate as presenters, moderators, and session chairs. The event is open to the public.

In the short term, TNLA students are demonstrably more prepared for senior level work. Equipped with both broad and deep knowledge as well as a valuable practical skillset, TNLA students transition to their Honours programs with confidence and proficiency.

Importantly, TNLA’s three integrated courses give you the entrance requirements for English, History, and Philosophy as well as numerous other programs at King’s and Western. They also count for your Category A and B and your essay course requirement for your Western degree.

In the long term, professionally you are set up for pretty much any career you are brave enough to dream up. We intend to set you up to succeed in your future! And in your personal life, you can enjoy the benefits of an enlarged intellectual and cultural know-how.

In the spirit of the liberal arts (the practice of freedom and liberality), TNLA students are involved in an intensive and challenging learning experience that pushes them outside their comfort zone to be braver, confident, and more compassionate. The methodology at work here can be transferred to various types of professions or sectors. TNLA focuses on ‘you’ the individual and then broadens out to establish you as an adult ready for the next stage in your life: you get personalized supervision by your professors, one-on-one mentoring by a former Foundations student, membership in the TNLA Club, incredible support from your classmates, and most importantly the start to an undergraduate degree leading to any number of careers: law, policy, journalism, politics, teaching, writing, publishing, labour negotiating, communications, archival research, to name only a few. TNLA students go on to the most prestigious graduate and professional programs around the world, law school, Ivey, or exciting and promising jobs in a diverse number of sectors.

Students wanting to continue the unique TNLA pedagogy may apply to be a King’s Scholar after first year, a select program for high-achieving students interested in self-directed learning, creative assignments, and diverse knowledge in a small cohort of like-minded peers.