The recent trend of trying to measure higher education's return on investment misses a fundamental point, argue Charity Johansson and Peter Felten. The central purpose of a college or university is to transform the lives of students-not to merely change them or help them mature. This transformation is an ongoing process of intentionally aligning one's behavior with one's core sense of personal identity. It is the university's central role to lead students in this transformation, a process that shapes students into intentional, critical, and engaged individuals. Recognizing the remarkable influence of the college experience on peoples' lives, the authors offer a guide to how colleges and universities can effectively lead students through this life-changing process. Drawn from extensive interviews with students and graduates, faculty and staff, Transforming Students gathers diverse stories to show how students experience the transformation process, which rarely follows a neat or linear path. The interviews illustrate central themes from the literature on transformative learning and the undergraduate student experience. A sequel of sorts to George Keller's classic Transforming a College - which chronicled Elon University's metamorphosis from struggling college to a top regional university- Transforming Students addresses the school's core educational mission: to shape students into engaged adults who embrace learning as a lifelong endeavor. Given this effect, the college experience is much more than preparation for a career. It is preparation for life.

We highly recommend Transforming Students. The importance of creating transformational learning experiences in today's university setting that connect with messy real world problems and hopeful opportunities is paramount to achieve the promises of a higher education. -- Edward J. Brantmeier & Emily L. Kohl Teachers College Record This book is particularly relevant as the idea of a university and the fundamental purpose of higher education continue to be challenged and redefined... While Johansson and Felten acknowledge that this work emphasizes the enrichment and engagement that residential colleges can provide, their focus on the traditional college experience is not a limitation of the book. If anything, the testaments of transformation in individuals' stories at Elon and other examples of successful collegiate interventions across the nation offer support for the power of engagement that the traditional university can still deliver, especially in a rapidly emerging era of for-profit institutions and online learning. -- Veronica Jones Review of Higher Education This concise text encourages educators, provides simple entry points into pedagogical theories, distills current student development research into poignant sound bites, and offers conceptual measures for engaging the transformative learning process with one's own students, both inside and outside the classroom. -- Rachel A. Heath Reflective Teaching

Charity Johansson is a professor of physical therapy at Elon University. Peter Felten is director of the Center for Engaged Learning and a professor of history at Elon University.