Senior Year Experience
SYE courses are designed to help students bring together the learning done in majors, Integrative Studies courses and elective courses. You bring the expertise you have gained in your major and the breadth you have gained in Integrative Studies to the Senior Year Experience in order to create a lively interdisciplinary learning experience with other students and faculty. SYE adds value to or "tops off" your entire Otterbein education. It's a space in the curriculum that allows you to think about and use the college education you've spent so much time and effort acquiring. At the same time SYE courses can be seen as an end point, a place to reflect on all that's gone before. They are also designed as a bridge to the future, a place to practice for what's coming next.
Students enrolling in SYE must have completed 135 credit hours and at least 7 of the 10 Integrative Studies courses. Don't worry so much about choosing an SYE that matches your major; rather, choose something you're interested in, concerned about, or curious about. Later, as you actually walk into your SYE, it means you need to be willing to:
- Actively confront a problem; engage in an issue; work to gain knowledge; wrestle with ethical choices; and come up with individual and group positions, answers, or solutions
- Think of yourself as an expert in your discipline and be willing to share your expertise with those outside your discipline
- Think of yourself as a budding professional, an educated person, and a citizen
- Think about your education as a whole: how it adds up, how it all relates, how it can be used to live your life
For questions about the SYE program, contact program director Leesa Kern.
J-Term 2012 Courses
SPAN 3600 - Discovering Latin America
Hours: 4
An interactive learning experience that involves international travel, this course seeks to challenge and strengthen student linguistic proficiency in Spanish, while at the same time exposing students to the tremendous historical and cultural richness of South America. Students in the course will travel to countries such as Chile and/or Argentina and will interact with the peoples and cultures of these countries in ways that will broaden their understanding of the global world and give them new insights into their own cultures. Pre and post activities of the course will include tasks and instruments meant to catalyze self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. For SYE Credit, see SYE Program Director and register for SYE 4752 in Spring 2012
SOCL 3910 – Investigating Globalization and Community: Sustaining Community During Global Industrial Development
Hours: 4
This international service and travel course investigates community response to social and environmental impacts of heavy industrial development domestically and in the global south. We begin with intensive study of development theories and comparative research of several diverse regions undergoing industrial development, with special focus on Trinidad. Midterm the class departs for a travel and service experience in southern Trinidad. There we explore impacts of heavy industry and organized community response through tours of industrial sites, meetings with human and environmental rights advocates, community leaders and residents to learn about their often surprisingly successful strategies.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. For SYE Credit, see SYE Program director and register for SYE 4752 in Spring 2012