We believe, and have experienced, that there is something special about education and pedagogy, and it is something that we have always carried with us. We are convinced that learning is about the student. Learning has to be centered on the student, and success is achieved when the student succeeds. The scholarship of teaching and learning is of high priority, and should be considered of equal importance to content area expertise. That being said, our pedagogical philosophy is relationship-based, and focuses on utilizing the cultural assets that each student brings to the table to co-create knowledge. Education should be relevant and practical so that students get what they need to be successful in today's world.

As a result, our vision would be rigorously focused on student learning – especially on improving their learning in terms of critical, innovative, and reflective thinking, which allows them to critique and apply their knowledge to the challenges of the university community, the world community. We would like to promote a Center of Excellence that is invitational...inviting and not forcing....a place of support that encourages faculty to seek and use the resources. we would collaborate with faculty and administrators to develop communities of practices (peer learning) around student learning and their own learning. These communities of practice would explore and experiment with: (1) New ways of teaching; (2) Designing learning environments; (3) Gathering evidence of excellence around learning (assessment) and of teaching or facilitating learning (evaluation); and (3) Developing communities that include students in applying their knowledge to real world problems.

MINDSET We would accomplish the above by being collaborators, facilitators, networkers, experienced developers, and leaders. The following activities are proposed to accomplish excellence through an incremental implementation approach where milestones will be evaluated and actions will take place accordingly; thus, the following are the expected outcomes for this coming year: Roundtables , In order to promote continuous discussion about teaching and learning, we would propose roundtable discussions that could be aligned with identified priorities of the Center, as well as individual faculty member choice. Faculty would be able to present their own research, learning, and good practice in the domain of a competency-based, student centered approach in higher education. This would open a space of sharing in the following areas: (1) Course design; (2) Learning environment and classroom management; (3) Teaching and learning methods; (4) Learning styles; (5) Assessment of learning; (6) Reflection on faculty teaching and self-evaluation; (7) Promoting critical thinking in higher education and training on the use of CT assessment; (8) Integrating technology in learning and teaching; and (9) Creating a balanced and meaningful student workload. Community Engagement Innovation (Model and Faculty Award)—Enriched by experiences collaborating with community stakeholders to promote reciprocal learning and benefit for the public good. It is about a model for integrating faculty and student scholarship with community problem-solving of social and educational challenges. It is an approach to a contextualized education, with a significant role played by all who connect and interact with the community environment in order to build educative community projects. This is an alternative model to assist faculty to be more integrated into societal needs, and to provide a comprehensive coordination role for innovative actions to fulfill the educational vision of being a leading beacon of hope in the evolving society in conflict. Fellowship : this type of program facilitates focused faculty development that deepens understanding of key issues and practices of learning and teaching. This is a program that we can introduce to faculty so they can conduct a project concerning the development or revision of a course. A mentor could be appointed from within AUS to follow up on each project to create better coordination among faculty and decrease the resistance among more veteran faculty. Innovation parks or incubators may be one of the main projects to present, while others could establish agreements that favor the mobility of students, allow the development of research programs, and facilitate the sharing of resources.