The Right Place
It is difficult to imagine a more diverse, more exploratory place than Southern California. Here, hundreds of cultures, religions, and languages exist side by side. It’s a microcosm of the multireligious society spreading across North America, and to lead in this context you need to understand it. California is also home to the growing numbers of people who identify themselves as "spiritual but not religious." Claremont Lincoln’s open, interdisciplinary approach to integrating theory and practice, belief and unbelief, make its programs and faculty compelling to anyone who needs a better way to navigate a world of traditional and emerging belief systems.
California has long been home to cultural catalysts and pioneers—from Hollywood to Silicon Valley, from social change to communications. Claremont Lincoln continues in this tradition, designing a "playbook" for complex, diverse communities across the country and around the world.
Southern California is the World
Schoolteachers in Southern California know the number "91" by heart: Ninety-one languages are spoken in Los Angeles classrooms, simply one indicator of the truly international character of Southern California’s culture. This cultural complexity is the ecology in which Claremont Lincoln students will live, work, and learn – regardless of where they may eventually serve.
Gateway to the Pacific Rim
This is Claremont Lincoln’s backyard. From East Asia to the Pacific Islands, the Pacific Rim is a major factor in global politics, culture, and religious practice. It’s also home to fast-growing economies, important trading partners, and a highly complex and diverse set of countries and cultures.
On an express train to conflict
Claremont sits on the county line between Los Angeles and the Inland Empire: the fastest-growing area code in the U.S. So social challenges, religious conflicts, and a set of cultures fiercely fixed on making the world better for their kids mean real multicultural challenges are at our doorstep.
A big neighborhood
The founding partners of Claremont Lincoln University hail from, and are connecting, three very different areas in Los Angeles:
Claremont, home to the University, is the historic location of five prestigious undergraduate colleges, three world-class graduate institutions, and dozens of research centers and think tanks.
Koreatown, near the urban center of Los Angeles, is home to more than 120,000 Korean-Americans, and it is where the Islamic Center of Southern California convenes Muslims from across the Southland.
West Los Angeles, a center of Jewish life in Southern California, and a location close to the campus of UCLA, is home for the Academy for Jewish Religion, California.