A University of Wisconsin-Platteville education consists of two main components: general education and the academic major. General education provides a broad foundation of knowledge and skills; the academic major focuses on the knowledge and skills of a specific field. The overall goal is to empower graduates to live thoughtfully, concerned about their professional careers, as well as public issues that reach far beyond their professional circle, local community, or nation. This goal reflects the opening statement of the Select Mission in which the University of Wisconsin-Platteville pledges itself to: “enable each student to become broader in perspective, more literate, intellectually more astute, ethically more sensitive, and to participate more wisely in society as a competent professional and a knowledgeable citizen.”