Engaged Students

At Woodbury University, student experience is at the center of the learning.  In architecture, first-year students are given their own studio space and their first assignment is to build their own desks.   Problem-based and project-based learning is integrated throughout Woodbury University's curriculum, often in community settings where the contributions make a significant difference. Graphic design students create logos and branded materials for non-profit clients such as the Screen Actors Guild foundation, communication students work in collaboration with Hanze University in the Netherlands to design games that help Somali children deal with their war experiences, and business students work with corporate partners to help with marketing strategy and management.  Students also apply their disciplines in field studies abroad in Italy, China, Argentina, and Tahiti.

All students engage in significant internships and work experiences that lead to jobs.  Using Burbank, Los Angeles, and Hollywood as their lab, students gain career experiences with companies such as Disney, Warner Bros., Cartoon Network, and Price Waterhouse Coopers.  Before graduating, each student undertakes a significant project, either alone or in a team. It might be creating a new app, designing a new solar building, or serving as CEO of a simulated business.

Great Teaching

Woodbury prides itself on providing individual attention for students.  Faculty members, many of them practicing professionals themselves, understand that students will need to satisfy the high standards that their professions set and be prepared for the future of those professions.  They also understand that what distinguishes Woodbury's graduates from others is that students learn to use their own experiences and voices and that makes a difference in both the quality of the work and its unique power.  Students need courage to see themselves as makers of knowledge, and faculty members empower, support, and nurture students in that process.

Nearly 70 percent of Woodbury undergraduates are in studio-based academic programs in the School of Architecture and the School of Media, Culture & Design, working daily on projects and receiving real-time feedback from professors and fellow students instead of periodically taking tests. In Woodbury's School of Business and in the Institute for Transdisciplinary Studies, students also benefit from this type of project-based learning and close interaction with faculty.

Faculty members work to coax performance from all students, from the first class in design foundation to the complex culminating collaborative projects that link students with a faculty mentor.  Students, who enter without a portfolio in the media, design, and architecture programs, are amazed at what they find out they can accomplish.

Vibrant Community

Whether it is the casual culture of the 24/7 studios or the formal culture of the annual Grand Critique when 400 architecture students and professors gather to celebrate and discuss projects, student life is what makes Woodbury a vibrant campus.  The integration of academic and personal development is everywhere present on campus. Woodbury is a diverse community of students from 40 countries and dozens of regional and national ethnicities, from Latino and Armenian to Irish and African American.  Students come together as a community in the very beginning through one-book-one-campus, sharing a common reading and discussion with faculty and staff.  The community expands when the student group La Voz Unida's program brings parents to campus to follow their students for one day. 

Animation students work at the annual Annie Awards that celebrate the best in animation, and business students organize and staff events such as the launch of the Mercedes-Benz smart car in China and the premier of the film "One a Minute." Each year dozens of student teams also compete for prizes for new businesses in an event run by the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization.  And, undergraduates who have started a business while in school network at the Student Entrepreneur's breakfast.  On-campus chapters of national professional organizations such as AIGA and AIA are student-led, as is Woodbury University's AIESEC chapter, which places international students in local internships and campus students in international internships.   In addition, Woodbury University has a full calendar of gallery exhibitions and speakers connected with each program.

Successful Outcomes

Woodbury students believe that by transforming themselves, they can make a difference in the world. In architecture, for instance, Woodbury students learn to respect the layered ecologies of nature, history, society, and culture.  In the words of one program reviewer, "Woodbury doesn't just create architects; it creates architect citizens."

Woodbury University's education emphasizes quality, creativity, innovation, communication in many media, social responsibility, personal and professional growth, and problem-solving in teams drawn from diverse fields. Faculty and staff serve as mentors and guides in helping students come to embody these principles.  They want their graduates to exemplify the change that they seek in the personal and professional communities in which they will live and work.