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Engaging Today's Students with the Liberal Arts |
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Lake Forest College |
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Description of College's strength in supporting student academic development Lake Forest College has a strong First Year Studies program, distinguished by a writing-intensive set of courses, which aim to develop writing, speaking and critical thinking skills across the disciplines. Each first year student is advised by the instructor of the chosen first year studies course; this provides a solid connection between the crucial advising process and the student's academic program. Students may be therefore guided early in their first year to take advantage of campus services. These services include those offered by the Writing Center, the Counseling Center, the Dean of the College Office, the Office of Leadership and Community Involvement, the Library, the Learning and Teaching Center, and the Office of Intercultural Affairs, in addition to departments that often provide discipline-specific student tutors. The Dean of the College and the Learning and Teaching Center organize a program of workshops during the year called Interact; these are specifically designed to address common first and second year challenges, e.g. time management, study skills, etc. The College's Learning and Teaching Center provides mentoring for both faculty and students, through teaching and technology workshops and by providing a system of peer mentors who are not discipline-specific. The Center offers videotaped classes and conducts informal mid-year course checks in the instructor's absence, in order to provide useful feedback to professors. This underlies a campus-wide culture of instructional excellence. The Director and Associates of the LTC are also available to visit classes and give critiques to instructors to enhance their teaching. There are designated seminars for first and second year faculty members throughout the year, as well as other instructional sessions on topics related to the profession for all faculty members to attend. A major advantage of the small, liberal arts college is the extent to which professors and staff across campus are concerned with or engaged in the life of the students beyond the classroom. Our General Education Requirements also support student academic development by providing a broad base in the liberal arts. Many Lake Forest College students work with professors on independent research projects, through independent studies, thesis preparation, advanced research or creative projects, and through our summer Richter program, where rising sophomore students are paid to work with a faculty mentor on the instructor's research after taking an interdisciplinary seminar on the epistemological assumptions of the liberal arts' disciplines. Many students choose to present the results of their research in the annual Student Symposium, a daylong college-wide event held in the spring. Our four Lake Forest College study abroad programs underlie an emphasis on preparing responsible, global citizens reflected in our mission statement. Lake Forest College fall study abroad programs in Santiago, Chile and Paris, France are internship programs with a home stay and two additional courses in Spanish or French. Our Greece/Turkey program and new China program take students abroad in the spring, guided by a faculty member. ACM provides other study abroad program opportunities. Our annual Global Student Responsibilities Symposium addresses the international experience from a student perspective (international students on our home campus as well as the study abroad experience), and includes an invited speaker on the theme of global citizenship. We have a new Asia Center which supports efforts to link our campus with Chicago's Asian Community. Our Chicago Outreach and Chicago Alliance programs provide funding for faculty-generated and student-generated links to Chicago resources, supporting the use of Chicago as an extended classroom. Our geographic proximity to Chicago is promoted to students through offices such as Chicago Alliance and Chicago Outreach to encourage the use of nearby off-campus resources for their academic development. Challenge in supporting student academic development We would like greater participation by all academic departments and programs in the First Year Studies program, and to link these courses where feasible to the resources of Chicago to enhance learning beyond the classroom. We plan to accomplish this by hosting workshops on using Chicago for faculty designing new first year studies courses (as a result of a three-year Mellon grant). This goal will also be assisted by hosting institutional liaisons from cultural centers in Chicago with whom our faculty would like to form a stronger association. One challenge raised by this move towards greater integration of Chicago as an extended classroom, in not only first year studies courses, but also in upper-level courses, is determining logistical guidelines for faculty to facilitate this initiative. The first challenge noted, gaining greater participation across departments in the First Year Studies program, is one which may be served by the Mellon grant workshops and stipend offered to First Year Studies faculty who generate new courses. This initiative should be examined by the team to determine how the grant has been successful in this endeavor, and to strategize for future participation of departments in the program. The team will look ahead to the second year of the grant and begin to plan its workshops and activities with these challenges in mind. We could certainly benefit from other colleges' experience in successfully utilizing surrounding area resources to extend learning beyond the traditional classroom, and their experience in managing logistical conflicts raised by this effort. We would also benefit by looking at other effective First Year Studies program models and discussing how different departments are encouraged to participate in such programs. A project Our project will be to address the above challenges related to departmental participation in First Year Studies programs, the shape and logistics of this program with regard to utilizing the resources of Chicago, and how our recent Mellon grant will begin to assist with these challenges. We may also discover models, which could effect longer-term planning with regard to our First Year Studies Program, recently reviewed after 10 years of operation. Team Members
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Return to: College strengths Return to: Engagement Project |
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