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Discover your path. Uncover your future.

PioPath is more than just a set of classes. Pio Path provides students with the necessary support to succeed in their future careers and helps create well rounded students. In addition, PioPath allows students to grow academically and as individuals by preparing them for success in both the classroom and their careers. PioPath allows students to immerse themselves in their liberal arts education.

A student walking on the Christy Mall with a clock and the Legacy Library in the background

Stop One

Marietta College provides an educational experience that lays the foundation for your future accomplishments. You will begin your journey with two courses designed to grow your critical thinking skills and connect you with the Marietta community.

PIO 101 Course

With a variety of Pio 101 courses provided, you get to choose which class best suits your interests to start your Pio Path journey. Since Marietta College advisors teach this course, you gain the unique opportunity to develop close relationships with the people you will work with for the next four years. Throughout the semester, you will gain information literacy skills and learn how to apply those skills to elevate your liberal arts learning experience. ​A solid academic foundation guarantees a more straightforward, fulfilling, and enjoyable college career.

PIO 102 Course

To better connect you with your community and peers, Pio 102 is an engagement course that allows you to learn more about campus, the Marietta community, and college life in general. You will visit the involvement fair to explore the many clubs and organizations you can join and learn how to balance your academic and social life. Pio 102 focuses on reducing unfamiliarity and uneasiness in your first-year experience while prioritizing your well-being and mental health. ​

Stop Two

As you become more accustomed to college life, you will learn how to integrate self-expression through writing and speech. Writing 102 is an introductory writing course that gives you a foundation to compose and edit writing material that will be utilized in future classes. Comm 203 is a course that allows you to build confidence and effective communication skills through hands-on learning and experiences. Pio 201 is an upper-level Pio course that combines critical thinking, writing, and public speaking, providing you with practice in connecting and applying ideas through different channels. ​

Writing 102 Course

Throughout your college experience, you will find that being able to express ideas clearly is a skill valued academically and professionally. By enhancing and refining your ability to write, edit, and apply outside information in papers, you are better equipped to tackle writing assignments for other classes. ​

COMM 203

This public presentation course aims to grow your confidence when speaking in front of a crowd. You will learn a variety of speeches as well as different verbal and nonverbal strategies that will help you grow to become an effective communicator. ​Completing this course gives you the tools you will need to feel more comfortable when delivering presentations for class or interviewing for an internship or job. ​

PIO 201

This Pio course takes everything students have learned in their Pio Path journey so far and puts it into practice. Like Pio 101, Pio 201 allows you to choose a course related to your major or personal interests. At the end of the year, you will apply all the information you have learned in a final project highlighting your writing and public presentation skills.  ​

Marietta College Students sitting in a classroom and taking notes while listening to a lecture.
A student speaking into a microphone while standing in front of the diversity mural inside the Multicultural Center.

Stop Three

Junior year you progress on learning about yourself, your options, and your future. In the end, it all adds up to your preparation for your goal to take flight! Once you have crafted and practiced critical thinking, writing, and public speaking skills, you will apply them to ethical and moral issues that directly relate to your major. Junior Core is an upper-level course that gives you the opportunity to analyze and reflect upon ethical issues you may come across in your future career. ​

Junior Core

With a variety of Pio 101 courses provided, you get to choose which class best suits your interests to start off your Pio Path journey. Since this course is taught by Marietta College advisors, you are granted the unique opportunity to develop close relationships with those you will be working with for the next four years. Throughout the semester, you will gain information literacy skills and learn how to apply those skills to elevate your liberal arts learning experience. ​Ensuring you are provided with a solid academic foundation guarantees a more straightforward, fulfilling, and enjoyable college career.

Step Four

After you apply all the knowledge and skills you have learned throughout your college career, your Pio Path journey will come to an end with the completion of your capstone project. The capstone course gives you comprehensive experience in further exploring your major through a final project.​
 

Capstone

As the final step in the Pio Path curriculum, the capstone project exercises your ability to write, speak, think critically, and problem-solve. Everything you have learned up to this point will be revisited and applied to create a successful final capstone project. Projects directly relate to your major and include but are not limited, to original research, an internship, artistic performance or creation, a teaching practicum, a practical consultancy that applies theory and knowledge to a business or other organization, etc. 

Two students speaking with a professor during office hours.
Explore the unknown.