When a student at Seton Hill University (SHU) approaches senior year, there are many tasks that are more than likely on his or her mind that they must accomplish-a portfolio review, an exit interview, graduate school applications. Another task that SHU requires of every senior as part of the liberal arts core is Senior Integrated Seminar, also known casually as �senior sem.�
Senior seminar is a three-credit class offered in both fall and spring semesters and is taught by various faculty and teachers on campus. Many of those who teach Seminar in Thinking and Writing (STW) also teach senior seminar. The class is meant to help seniors with preparing for graduation from preparing their portfolio to cover letter and resume writing.
By Andrea Perkins,
Staff Writer
When a student at Seton Hill University (SHU) approaches senior year, there are many tasks that are more than likely on his or her mind that they must accomplish-a portfolio review, an exit interview, graduate school applications. Another task that SHU requires of every senior as part of the liberal arts core is Senior Integrated Seminar, also known casually as �senior sem.�
Senior seminar is a three-credit class offered in both fall and spring semesters and is taught by various faculty and teachers on campus. Many of those who teach Seminar in Thinking and Writing (STW) also teach senior seminar. The class is meant to help seniors with preparing for graduation from preparing their portfolio to cover letter and resume writing.
�We tend to talk about issues that will be relevant after graduation. It seems the focus of the course is to cover life skills to help students in the transitional period between graduation and graduate school and the work force,� said Breanne Hall, a member of professor emerita Sr. Ann Infanger’s class.
Some seniors, such Cara Daley, found that the class is helping the seniors grow in more ways than one.
�We�ve covered a wide variety of topics that are relevant to our development as professionals and as individuals,� Daley said.
The senior seminar classes must also complete what is known as a social action service project. The seniors must come up with a class project that is meant to give back to the community. Each class did something different, and students are meant to realize that just by doing a little, they can actually do a lot.
�You have to give back; its what you have to do in the real world. The little things make a difference, and you can make an impact in a big way,� said Stephanie Gojmerac, a senior in assistant professor of French Michele Chossat’s class.
�I think often people dream of helping others but think there is nothing they can do. Taking part in a project like this shows students the steps to helping which enables them to help in the future,� said Hall.
Reeves Memorial Library director David Stanley found that teaching senior seminar was a learning experience for him as well because he had never taught it before. His class’s service project was sending candy bars with wrappers decorated by the SHU kindergartners to the troops in Iraq.
�We chose to do something with the troops because of the significance of their duties, roles and responsibilities. I�m not here to change the world, but I can impact a small part of it. We all pictured the soldiers� smiles and instantly knew that we wanted to reach out to them in a special way,� said Mary Jane Smartnick, a senior in Stanley’s class.
Stanley gave his class free reign over what to choose for their project.
�I felt that since it was their project, I felt that something they chose was acceptable. They did discussions on J-Web and set up visits to the kindergarten, bought candy bars and met outside of class and wrapped them,� Stanley said.
For the most part, the students do (or are supposed to do) a large part of the work for the service project.
�They did 100 percent of the work. The only think I needed to do was say that it was an acceptable project that was going to make a difference in people’s lives,� said Stanley.
Daley’s class, taught by Carol Brode, assistant professor of art, decided to start a SHU Green Club.
�We decided to celebrate Earth Day because it was close to the development of the project,� said Daley. Their work was seen on Sullivan Lawn the week of April 23 as wooden signs giving facts about waste and garbage bags hanging from trees showing refuse picked up from the side of the road on Route 30.
Gojmerac’s class also had a project that helped out the troops in Iraq.
�For our project, we did fundraisers, collected money and adopted a platoon, and also worked with Operation Crayon, so not only did we send money over, we sent over coloring books and crayons to the children of Iraq,� said Gojmerac.
The kindergartners were also the topic of the service project for Hall’s class, who decided to read to the kindergartners.
�We contacted the director of the Child Development Center (CDC) to get the project approved and set up. Then, in class, we learned tips about reading to children, the proper way to behave around children and general knowledge that would be helpful while doing our project,� said Hall.
When the time arrives to register for senior seminar, don’tthink it will be like the �senior version� of Connections or STW. The senior seminar classes are a way for SHU to give back to the seniors by preparing them for the world off the Hill, and a way for the seniors to give back to the community.
�These students came up with something that’s going to make an impact on someone 1,000 miles away, and they should be proud of themselves,� said Stanley.
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