Accountability for student success is at an all-time high in higher education; programs are challenged to actively engage students through significant learning experiences for cognitive, affective, and behavioral change. Family and consumer sciences departments are poised to lead the way in developing and modeling educational practices that result in significant learning for students and, ultimately, significant improvement in the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities. We substantiate this claim by describing current activities in our department from family studies, food service management, dietetics, apparel merchandising, and undergraduate research.