A Liberal Arts Education for an AI-Shaped World
At Agnes Scott College, we believe students thrive when they have both the experiences and the tools to navigate whatever comes next. Through Summit, every student engages in global travel, leadership development and real-world work experience. Beginning in Fall 2026, that commitment expands even further: through SUM 110: Academic Foundations Lab and SUM 120: Career Exploration Launch Lab, Agnes Scott students will be introduced to, and begin building foundational literacy in, the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence. This commitment, like our commitments to universally-accessible global travel and workplace immersion, grows from our conviction that a liberal arts education is the best preparation for real-world agility and success.
Why Universal?
At Agnes Scott, we take experiences that are typically accessible only to some - experiences like global travel and workplace immersion - and ensure they are accessible to all through our Global Journeys and SCALE programs. We extend those values to Universal AI instruction, providing our entire community with a shared baseline, and ensuring they are positioned to leverage the alignment between the critical thinking a liberal arts degree enables and the ethical adaptation an AI-powered world demands.
Integrated Into the First-Year Experience
Universal AI is embedded within Agnes Scott’s Summit curriculum through structured learning modules that introduce:
- Foundations: vocabulary and conceptual grounding
- Ethics: core tensions and ethical decision-making in academic settings
- Professional contexts: responsible use in career exploration and preparation, and impact on professions
Learning unfolds within a broader conversation about leadership, inclusion and global engagement. Universal AI instruction builds on SUMMIT’s integrated approach to leadership and global learning, extending it to one of the most consequential technologies shaping contemporary life.
AI Literacy as a Liberal Arts Skill
The liberal arts prepare students to interpret complex systems, question assumptions and exercise judgment. Artificial intelligence is one of the most consequential systems shaping contemporary society.
Through Universal AI, students explore:
- The history and foundations of AI
- Core concepts, from algorithms to generative models
- The cultural and philosophical assumptions embedded in technology
- Ethical tensions surrounding bias, privacy, labor and environmental cost, how these dynamics shape inequities across communities and around the globe
- The enduring role of human agency in automated systems
Tools will evolve. Platforms will change. The capacity to think clearly, ask discerning questions and evaluate consequences remains durable.
Ethics at the Center
Universal AI reinforces Agnes Scott’s longstanding commitment to ethical leadership.
Students will engage real-world cases that explore bias and fairness, with particular attention to who is most harmed and who most benefits from AI systems. Our AI instruction also surfaces the risks of over-reliance on automated tools, by helping students recognize when AI use may undermine learning, authorship, or academic integrity. Students will develop personal AI use statements aligned with the Agnes Scott College Honor Code and with their personal values, and consider the broader implications of intelligent systems for communities, business, institutions and civic life.
In a technological landscape defined by acceleration, Agnes Scott emphasizes reflection, responsibility, innovation and the importance of human judgement.
Preparation for Professional Life
Artificial intelligence already shapes hiring systems, résumé screening and workflows across industries.
Agnes Scott equips students to engage responsibly and strategically in professional contexts. Students learn how AI intersects with résumé development, career research and applicant tracking systems. They gain structured, hands-on experience using tools thoughtfully and transparently, in ways that support rather than replace their own critical thinking and writing.
Graduates enter the workforce prepared to collaborate with intelligent systems while maintaining clarity of voice and professional integrity and adding value the minute they arrive on the job.
Values-Driven Innovation
Agnes Scott’s approach to AI is deliberate and mission-aligned.
Universal AI affirms enduring liberal arts commitments: careful reasoning, thoughtful inquiry, moral imagination and civic responsibility. The initiative prepares students to lead in a society increasingly shaped by intelligent technologies while remaining grounded in human values.
The world is evolving.
Every Agnes Scott graduate will be prepared to evolve with it — thoughtfully, ethically and with confidence.