What is a Senior Year Experience (SYE)?

To fulfill the SYE mission, faculty will develop courses that help students achieve the following goals:

Goal 1: Reflect

Reflect on the significance of your education, values, passions, and previous experiences in your search for meaning and purpose.

• Reflect on the significance of your learning in your major, Integrative Studies and general education courses, immersive experience, and other facets of life.
• Reflect on the interconnections between your education and other experiences.
• Reflect on how your personal values and passions have informed your education, professional development, and other experiences.

Goal 2: Engage

Access the possibilities, resources, and experiences that will propel your education, life path, and work path.

• Discover the personal and professional relevance of Otterbein classes, different majors and minors, general education and Integrative Studies courses, and co-curricular experiences.
• Envision, plan, and complete a substantive immersive experience that nurtures your personal and professional growth.
• Connect to resources that promote academic and professional success, belonging, wellness, and life and work planning.

Goal 3: Anticipate

Imagine the future purposes of the knowledge, skills, passions, and values you’ve developed through academic and individual experiences.

• Anticipate your future obligations as an individual, a professional, a member of diverse communities, and an agent of the public good.
• Anticipate the challenges you may encounter in new contexts and how you will rise to meet them.
• Anticipate how your knowledge, skills, passions, and values will inform your future goals and action steps.

Goal 4: Transition

Prepare for your transition into new personal, professional, communal, and global contexts.

• Prepare for the post-college transition with students across disciplines, doing vital readiness work.
• Develop skills essential to academic and professional success, community engagement, and self-actualization.
• Develop the awareness, knowledge, and skills that foster equity and inclusion in diverse communities and workplaces.
• Understand the importance of creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and professionalism to your work path and life path.

To register for a two-credit SYE course (e.g., Work & Life After College) you must have:

• Completed 90 credit hours of regular course work.
• Completed – or be in the process of completing — one of the following immersive experiences
  • An internship. Paid or unpaid. For academic credit or no credit. Provided that you worked at least 120 hours.
  • A significant leadership experience. Serving as President of a student organization, captain of an athletic team, editing Aegis or other campus media/publications. For at least one academic year.
  • A significant campus work experience. Serving as an RA, a Lead Advocate for the WGSRC, an Orientation Leader, etc.
  • A significant community engagement (volunteer) experience. Serving as a hospice volunteer, working for Promise House or the Community Garden, staffing a crisis chatline, etc. For at least one semester or one year, working at least 120 hours.
  • Senior research or creative work: a senior recital, art exhibition, or writing project; a distinction or honors project; a capstone research seminar in your major.
  • A significant clinical or field experience in your major: student teaching, nursing clinicals, etc.
  • A significant travel experience: a study abroad course, a semester abroad, or the personal equivalent.
• Contact Dr. Suzanne Ashworth (sashworth@otterbein.edu) or Kate Lehman (klehman@otterbein.edu) if you need permission to enroll in a particular section.

To register for a three-credit, topical SYE course, you must have:

• Completed 90 credit hours of regular coursework.
• This option is ideal for students that don’t have one of the qualifying immersive experiences listed above. Or that need a 3-credit course in order to graduate with the requisite 120 hours.

An SYE Travel Class?

Students often fulfill the SYE requirement with a Travel Class. E.g., SYE 4207 Vienna or SYE 4207 Cultural Heritage: Travel in Spain. See the Study Abroad Office and the annual course catalog for more info. And talk to faculty teaching your Travel Class about its eligibility as an SYE.

A 2-credit SYE 4104 Work & Life After College Seminar?

• Launched with the rise of Otterbein READY, this class is perfect for students who have a qualifying immersive experience.
• Many majors – Nursing, Education, Engineering, Theater, and more – have immersive experience courses (clinicals, student teaching, internships, etc.) integrated into their programs. Banner is coded to recognize those classes and students can automatically enroll in 4104.
• Students seeking enrollment in 4104 with an immersive experience that isn’t part of their major course work, should contact Dr. Suzanne Ashworth (sashworth@otterbein.edu) for more guidance. See the list below.
• An internship. Paid or unpaid. For academic credit or no credit. Provided that you worked at least 120 hours.
• A significant leadership experience. Serving as President of a student organization, captain of an athletic team, editing Aegis or other campus media/publications. For at least one academic year.
• A significant campus work experience. Serving as an RA, a Lead Advocate for the WGSRC, an Orientation Leader, etc.
• A significant community engagement (volunteer) experience. Serving as a hospice volunteer, working for Promise House or the Community Garden, staffing a crisis chatline, etc. For at least one semester or one year, working at least 120 hours.
• Senior research or creative work: a senior recital, art exhibition, or writing project; a distinction or honors project; a capstone research seminar in your major.
• A significant clinical or field experience in your major: student teaching, nursing clinicals, etc.
• A significant travel experience: a study abroad course, a semester abroad, or the personal equivalent.

Honors 4000 or 4500?

Students in the Honors Program can fulfill the SYE requirement with Honors 4000 Senior Honors Integrative Seminar or Honors 4500 Senior Honors Thesis Seminar.

A 3-credit topical SYE seminar?

Students that need a 3-credit SYE to graduate or that anticipate professions that resonate with our topical seminars can take classes like: SYE 4103 Community, Change, and Non-Profit Leadership or SYE 4204 Health Equity: Issues in Minority Health. See the annual course schedule for this year’s options.