Mission
The KGI Henry E. Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences (Riggs School) is dedicated to education and research aimed at translating into practice the power and potential of the life sciences for the benefit of society.
Culture
KGI seeks to sustain an interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial culture, working in partnership with industry to develop leaders for the biosciences, while promoting academic freedom and the highest ethical standards.
Core Values
We are:
- Entrepreneurial and Reflective
- Ethical and Responsible
- Collaborative and Independent
- Interdisciplinary and Applied
Core Values in Detail
ENTREPRENEURIAL AND REFLECTIVE
- Encourages experimentation
- Encourages new ventures, both internal and external, and treats them as learning
opportunities - Tolerates risks and accepts that some experiments fail
- Acknowledges that anxiety and ambiguity often attend risk-taking
- Treats each member of KGI as a partner who has a role in making it a success
- Remains small, agile, and un-bureaucratic
- Challenges higher education conventions
- Takes the time and effort to learn lessons from the past and to plan for the future
- Encourages change that arises from self-reflection
- Works actively to foster personal, professional, and intellectual growth for everyone in the KGI community
ETHICAL AND RESPONSIBLE
- Is dedicated to the highest ethical standards in all activities: learning, research, business, personal interactions, and external relations
- Recognizes that potential conflicts of interest cannot always be avoided, but they can and must be openly acknowledged and carefully managed
- Pursues open, honest, and frank interactions with each other and with our external partners
- Is dedicated to “benefit society”
- Works to raise awareness and develop innovative solutions to ethical issues facing the bioscience industry
- Trusts each member of the KGI community to take responsibility for their own actions
- Empowers all KGI members to “own” the process of their learning and professional growth and supports them in these efforts
COLLABORATIVE AND INDEPENDENT
- Promotes collaboration among the KGI staff, students, and faculty
- Actively partners with industry, non-profits, educational, and government institutions
- Preserves vigorously the highest standards of academic freedom
- Cooperates with other Claremont Colleges to leverage the strengths of these diverse institutions and the consortium
- Sees team-based activities as central to learning, research, and administration
- Acknowledges that true collaboration requires flexibility, information sharing, frequent communication, and mutual respect
IN AN INTERACTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
- Encourages all members of the KGI community to continue to develop their capabilities
- Fosters discussion and debate within the classroom
- Actively involves students in the design of course offerings and seeks their feedback to foster improvements
- Dedicates itself to action learning through projects
- Seeks a multi-talented and diverse student body whose members can learn from each other
INTERDISCIPLINARY AND APPLIED
- Pursues integrated, cross-disciplinary research and teaching as central to KGI’s mission
- Avoids creation of separate academic departments that might foster isolation and discourage interdisciplinary work
- Works closely with industry in all aspects of the KGI curriculum—technical, management and ethics—and through the summer internships and Team Master's Projects
- Involves individuals from industry as full-time, adjunct, and guest faculty members
- Seeks input from industry members on the KGI Board of Trustees and Advisory Council to ensure the ongoing relevance of KGI’s curriculum and research directions
