New Planning Tool Helps Newman University Pathmaker Students

Key Takeaways

• Newman University's Pathmaker program offers a 3-year bachelor's degree with an optional 4th year for a master's degree, helping students save time and money.
• Students can customize their educational journey using an AI-powered degree planning tool, called Pathmaker GPT, that aligns with their specific career goals and interests.
• The program replaces traditional general education courses with hands-on, project-based learning experiences during summer terms.
• With a flat-rate tuition of $19,500 annually, Pathmaker students can save approximately 25% on their total education costs compared to traditional programs.
• Newman University's innovative approach helps students enter the workforce a year earlier while maintaining the same 120-credit hour requirement as traditional degrees.

Newman University is transforming higher education with its Pathmaker program, a new approach designed to help students complete their bachelor's degree in just three years. At the heart of this program is a sophisticated AI planning tool that allows students to customize their educational journey based on their specific career aspirations.

The Pathmaker program, set to launch in Fall 2025, represents a significant departure from traditional education models. According to Alden Stout, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Newman University, "This really is a partnership that enhances the program, where we can get some feedback and ideas on how we can make it better." This collaborative approach between the university, students, and industry partners is central to the program's design.

The AI planning tool, developed by Newman's data science faculty, helps students create personalized degree paths by analyzing regional employment trends, opportunities, and the university's course catalog. This technology enables students to input their career goals and receive a customized educational plan that aligns with their aspirations.

"If you were to ask this customized version, let's say I want to be a financial advisor, can you create a degree for me? What this does is it searches through its customized set of information and then creates a degree from Newman University," explains Stout. "It tells you the skills that you'll be developing and the internship opportunities that are local that we have partnerships with that can help assist the students in getting experiential learning."

What Makes Newman's Pathmaker Program Different

Pathmaker stands apart from traditional education models in several key ways. Instead of the standard four-year timeline, students complete their bachelor's degree in just three years by utilizing year-round learning, including summer terms. The program maintains the same 120-credit hour requirement as traditional degrees but delivers it in an accelerated format.

"One of the things I want to emphasize is it doesn't devalue the degree by reducing the total number of credits or the depth or breadth of education that a student receives," Stout emphasizes. "It is still equivalent to every other Newman degree, but it's different in this sense. They can customize it, they can identify their goals and create a degree to achieve it."

Shannon Johnston, a faculty member coordinating the Pathmaker program, highlights another unique aspect: "You get to work on achieving your general education learning outcomes through project-based learning, no algebra class for you. You get to do real world experience in the community and on our campus."

Inside the Pathmaker Program Structure

1. Three-Year Bachelor's Degree Completion

The Pathmaker program condenses a traditional four-year bachelor's degree into three years without compromising educational quality. This is achieved through an structure that maximizes learning efficiency and eliminates unnecessary downtime.

"One of the aspects of the three year degree is there are conversations in higher education right now about how many credit hours should a degree be worth. We firmly believe that 120 credit hours, all the experience that goes is what creates the value of that degree," Stout explains. This commitment to academic rigor ensures that Newman's Pathmaker graduates are just as well-prepared as their peers from traditional programs.

2. Optional Fourth-Year Master's Degree

Upon completing their bachelor's degree, Pathmaker students have the option to continue for a fourth year to earn a master's degree. This accelerated pathway allows students to obtain advanced credentials in less time than traditional programs.

"Maybe the student completes a master's while their peer might be at an institution and finishing their bachelor's degree, they could be getting a master's degree in data science and starting to get a job for over a hundred thousand dollars a year, or social work or an MBA or biomedicine," says Stout. "The question to ask is, how much is a year of your life worth? And I think if you ask that question to yourself, you think it was a heck of a lot."

3. Year-Round Learning Including Summers

A key component of the Pathmaker program is its year-round learning model, which includes summer terms for project-based learning. This approach challenges the traditional academic calendar that takes summers off.

Stout questions the historical norm: "Do you ever wonder why we don't have classes over the summer in higher ed? The myth was that it was an agrarian calendar, but the reality is air conditioning. People took the summers off because of air conditioning. And when you think about how higher education can challenge those dogmas, well just so happens we have air conditioning now and the world works on a 24/7 format."

4. Flat-Rate Tuition of $19,500 Annually

Instead of the traditional tuition model with varying costs per semester, Pathmaker offers a flat rate of $19,500 per year, covering fall, spring, and summer semesters. This provides financial predictability for students and families.

Shannon Johnston explains, "The cost is a flat rate tuition of $19,500 annually. So rather than paying semesterly tuition for eight semesters, you pay $19,500 three times to cover three full years of learning and complete your degree."

Customizing Your Educational Journey with Pathmaker

1. AI-Powered Degree Planning Tool

The Pathmaker program's AI planning tool represents a technological advancement in academic advising. It allows students to input their career goals and receive a customized educational plan that aligns with their aspirations.

"We have a professor of data science who was able to train one of the chat GPT modules on regional employment trends, regional employment opportunities, and our college catalog," Stout explains. The result is a powerful tool that can map out an educational pathway specifically tailored to each student's career objectives.

When demonstrating the tool, Stout shows how a student interested in becoming a veterinary doctor could instantly receive a customized degree plan: "It creates a track for each possible career path you would want to have. So that's what we mean by customization. The students are able to craft a degree."

2. Personalized Academic Advising

While the AI tool provides a foundation for degree planning, students also work closely with academic advisors to refine their educational pathways and ensure they align with career goals.

"We take this, they work with their advisor to make sure this is a degree that fits them. And then we go with local industry, the places where they would get internships and say, have we put this together in a way that would help this student be successful in getting a job at your organization?" Stout describes.

3. Career-Aligned Customized Majors

Unlike traditional programs with rigid major requirements, Pathmaker allows students to create customized majors that directly align with their career goals. This flexibility enables students to develop precisely the skills they need for their desired profession.

"Let's say they want to add art, or they have a passion for history or a passion for literature. How do you integrate that into a coherent degree? We'll advise them how to do that," explains Stout. "So the degree no longer is a standard one size fits all, but customizable to every single student."

Real-World Skills Through Project-Based Learning

1. Hands-On Summer Projects Replace General Education

One of the most interesting aspects of the Pathmaker program is its approach to general education requirements. Instead of traditional general education courses, students engage in hands-on, project-based learning experiences during summer terms.

"We're re-imagining the way that general education would work," explains Stout. "Our core curriculum is probably the most important thing we do at Newman University because it equips the students with the skills they need for the rest of their life. One of the challenges though, is that there are times that students go into the courses and sometimes lack the obvious connection between their interests and passions, the skills they'll develop and the course they're in."

To address this disconnect, Pathmaker replaces traditional general education courses with immersive summer projects that develop the same essential skills but in a more engaging format.

2. Developing Essential Career Skills

The project-based learning approach ensures students develop critical skills that employers value, including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork.

"We've created summer projects where students will engage in hands-on working learning with a team of five faculty from across disciplines that will help them create and develop and deploy a project that develops essential skills," says Stout. "These skills are Newman's learning outcomes: critical thinking or critical reasoning. We want our students to be able to solve problems. We want them to be able to effectively communicate those solutions. We want them to be able to engage with diverse communities, to have a global perspective and to be able to work with people who are different than they are."

3. Collaborative Team-Based Learning

Pathmaker's project-based approach emphasizes collaborative learning, preparing students for the team-oriented nature of today's workforce.

"In addition, one thing to think about is the teamwork they develop. They're gonna be doing this in teams. And if you think about all the work that we do in the real world, it's kind of funny. There's a bit of a mismatch. You go through school by yourself, but when you enter the real world, when you enter the world of work, you're always working in a team. This gives them that team-based component," Stout points out.

Stout provides a concrete example of such a project: "Imagine you ask the students to create an accessible play playground feature for children with disabilities. How much goes into actually doing that successfully? When you have to talk to people, you have to communicate to the different stakeholders and constituencies. You'd probably have to create a survey, gather data, analyze the needs of the community. You'd have to talk to folks in the city, city planners or those who are in charge of the parks and rec area."

Pathmaker's Key Advantages

1. Significant Cost Savings

By completing a bachelor's degree in three years instead of four, Pathmaker students can save approximately 25% on their total education costs. This significant financial benefit can reduce student loan debt and provide greater financial freedom after graduation.

The flat-rate tuition of $19,500 per year covers fall, spring, and summer semesters, providing financial predictability and transparency for students and families.

2. Earlier Workforce Entry

Pathmaker graduates enter the workforce a full year earlier than their peers in traditional four-year programs. This head start provides both financial and career advancement advantages.

"Imagine this after their three years, they could go into the workforce a year early. They're able to generate earnings. They could be working and they could be pursuing a master's degree. So while their peers are getting their bachelor's, they could be graduating with their master's degree," Stout explains.

3. Internship and Industry Partnerships

The Pathmaker program has established partnerships with local industries to provide students with valuable internship opportunities and experiential learning experiences.

"Pathmaker includes internships and experiential learning enhanced summers that engage with community partners and move outside the walls of the campus," says Stout. These partnerships not only enhance the learning experience but also help students build professional networks that can lead to employment opportunities after graduation.

4. Enhanced Career Readiness

Through its combination of customized degree paths, project-based learning, and internship experiences, Pathmaker prepares students to be career-ready upon graduation.

"One thing that we find is students come to, when students come, they're excited to start their future in the major that they've chosen. This gives them the opportunity to do that earlier, to jump into those courses," explains Stout. This early immersion in career-focused coursework helps students develop the specific skills and knowledge they need for their chosen profession.

Catholic Values and Pathmaker: Education with Purpose

As a Catholic institution, Newman University integrates its faith-based values into the Pathmaker program, ensuring students receive not just career preparation but also an education grounded in ethical principles and service to others.

The program develops what Stout describes as "creative artistry" along with "an appreciation of the Catholic intellectual tradition, which really is the integration of these types of skills." This holistic approach ensures that Pathmaker graduates not only have the skills to succeed in their careers but also the ethical foundation to make positive contributions to society.

The accessible playground project example demonstrates how service to others is woven into the learning experience, reflecting Newman University's Catholic mission of empowering graduates to transform society through their knowledge and skills.

Your Future Starts Now: Why Students Choose Pathmaker

The Pathmaker program represents a new approach to higher education that addresses many of the challenges facing today's students. By offering a customizable, accelerated, and affordable pathway to both bachelor's and master's degrees, Newman University is helping students achieve their educational and career goals more efficiently and effectively.

For students who are motivated, career-focused, and eager to maximize the return on their educational investment, Pathmaker provides an solution that challenges traditional higher education norms while maintaining educational quality and rigor.

As the program prepares for its Fall 2025 launch, it promises to transform not just the educational experiences of Newman University students but potentially the landscape of higher education itself.

To learn more about how the Pathmaker program can help you design your educational journey and accelerate your path to career success, visit Newman University's Pathmaker program today.