Abstract
The Challenge
 Finding a sense of authentic self as an institution, a true sense of mission, and the means to live that mission were the central focus of a strategic planning process addressed by the University of Central Oklahoma about fifteen years ago. As the institution grew within a metropolitan-serving mission, the goal to transform students from adolescents to adults and find new potential in their lives led to an exciting journey that is still vibrant and relevant today.
 Potential Consequences
 The theoretical base provided within transformative learning has helped students, staff, and faculty align efforts.
 Description
 This case study provides replicable processes and specifics that may help others find a clearer path for fulfilling their mission. The study describes how the University of Central Oklahoma’s (UCO’s) transformative learning focus coalesced and became the point of distinction for a UCO education, helping to ensure that all activity supported our mission—helping students learn.
 Reflection
 The compelling, lived sense of mission developed from the initial strategic planning process has helped to strengthen the learner-centered culture of the campus while providing a structure that facilitates implementation and assessment.
Highlights
Finding a sense of authentic self as an institution, a true sense of mission, and the means to live that mission were the central focus of a strategic planning process addressed by the University of Central Oklahoma about fifteen years ago
As well as organizations, connect with the world of higher education within a framework established through experience. They come with an eye toward expanding their worldview; transformative learning is about expanding that view, and as such is a natural process within higher education
The vice presidents, working within the President’s Cabinet, collectively formalized and created the Central Six Tenets, giving all other factors a formal, university-wide direction. It was at this point that the concept of transformative learning was officially included in the mission, reading: The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) exists to help students learn by providing transformative education experiences to students so that they may become productive, creative, ethical and engaged citizens and leaders serving our global community
Summary
Jack Mezirow’s foundational work beginning in the mid-70s is widely considered the origin of transformative learning theory (1981, 1990, 1997, 2000), its roots can be traced back to humanistic psychology, adult learning theory, and constructivist learning theory. Mezirow commented that: “A defining condition of being human is our urgent need to understand and order the meaning of our experience, to integrate it with what we know to avoid the threat of chaos” (Taylor & Cranton, 2012, p.73) This phenomenon is a natural part of growing up human. As well as organizations, connect with the world of higher education within a framework established through experience They come with an eye toward expanding their worldview; transformative learning is about expanding that view, and as such is a natural process within higher education. The changes implied within the framework of transformative learning are not superficial, involving the mere memorization of facts; instead, they align more with one of the basic tasks of undergraduate work, which involves transformation from adolescence to adulthood. Benjamin and Crymble (2017) found that youth described the transition as involving three accomplishments: physical responsibility for self, emotional competency, and career attainment (2017, pp. 252). Illeris (2014) succinctly defines transformative learning in a manner that fits well with the transitional perspective of adolescents to adulthood: “The concept of transformative learning comprises all learning which implies changes in the identity of the learner” (2014, p. 40)
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