Life-Time Free Alumni Audit

Education as Accompaniment: A New Approach to Lifelong Learning

Why should a student’s investment be limited to just a few years, especially within disciplines that encourage, and even require, continual growth and formation?

St. Bernard’s realizes that students are looking for education and formation that lasts a lifetime – an education and formation that does not simply rely on the impact of the past, but provides a continually fresh experience of theological and ministerial learning. In answer to this need, St. Bernard’s launched the Free Alumni Audit in Fall 2021 - a new model of graduate alumni formation that achieves our goal of providing continuing education that is not only passive, but mirrors the active, engaging, and dynamic experience of our master’s programs.

Every student who has graduated with a Master’s degree from St. Bernard’s, regardless of graduation year, is automatically eligible to audit graduate courses* for the remainder of their life for free. With this initiative in place, the expenses associated with a Master’s degree are no longer an investment that will bear fruit for a few concentrated years only; now, the upfront investment in theological education will provide formational accompaniment and enrichment throughout the entirety of one’s life. Matriculation into a graduate degree at St. Bernard’s now means lifelong access to an almost endless variety of structured theological and ministerial experiences, all with the characteristic breadth and depth of engagement our students have come to expect at St. Bernard’s.

*One audited course per academic year (Fall-Spring- Summer semesters); credit students will receive priority for in-person attendance when available. Excluded are a small percentage of our courses that are either addressed to specific populations or have registration based on the professor’s discretion.