'Suffolk 2025'

Shortly after her inauguration as Suffolk University’s 11th president, Marisa Kelly brought the University community together in a strategic planning process to help determine how best to serve Suffolk students and alumni for decades to come. (Explore the new strategic plan now.)

“We felt it was important to uncover those elements of our distinctive identity that will help us better stand out in a crowded higher education marketplace,” Kelly said.

In the ensuing months, dozens of members of the University community came together in large and small groups to take a deep dive into all things Suffolk. Community members looked at strengths, challenges, and advantages, along with where we should invest to maximize opportunities.

The result is Suffolk 2025, the University’s promise to prepare students and graduates to engage and thrive in a rapidly changing world and to have a positive impact on their communities.

This month, the University unveiled a digital version of the plan that weaves together imagery, video, and the written word to showcase an urban, borderless, and globally focused university that is “pushing the boundaries of what an educational experience can be.”

“Our hands-on, experience-based approach to learning extends beyond traditional classroom walls into every corner of Boston…and around the globe,” Suffolk 2025 states. “Our students move with the pulse of the city, embracing the limitless learning, career development, and service opportunities that surround them.”

The Suffolk 2025 site highlights investments in key initiatives, including a reimagined and expanded Center for Career Education and Professional  Development; a Center for Experiential Learning; and the planned launch of the University’s fourth school that brings together Suffolk's vast expertise in the public arena, including public affairs, politics, public service, public management, and the law. The school will build on the University's historic commitment to community engagement and social responsibility.

The plan puts a heightened focus on supporting career readiness for students and alumni at all stages of their careers. It embraces an experience-based pedagogy as a distinctive feature of a Suffolk education and a primary learning and teaching tool. It calls for expanded partnerships with industry and organizations, both locally and globally. And it focuses on strengthening connections with the more than 82,000 members of Suffolk’s alumni community around the region, the nation, and the globe.

“Suffolk 2025 extends our focus on preparing students and alumni for lifelong career and community success,” Kelly said. “The plan reflects our commitment to putting Suffolk University at the forefront of experiential and career education efforts at colleges and universities nationwide.”

Explore Suffolk 2025 and learn what’s in store for the future of the University.