Transylvania University announces its inaugural August term for first-year students
LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania will launch an ambitious three-week academic and co-curricular program designed to introduce first-year students to what a liberal education means when it debuts August term as part of the 2012–13 school year. During August term, students will take one course, an intensive seminar titled First Engagements, which will focus on a theme selected by a faculty committee each year. This year’s theme is “Making Sense,” a nod to the new students’ efforts to make sense of their transition from high school to college. Emphasis will be on learning how to be a critical reader and thinker, core skills needed to successfully pursue a liberal education. Each section of the course, numbering about 16 students, will study common texts, which may be supplemented by material chosen by the individual professors. This year’s selections are “Come and Go Molly Snow” by Kentucky author Mary Ann Taylor-Hall and “The Professor and the Madman” by Simon Winchester. Nearly two dozen faculty members from a variety of academic areas worked over the last year to develop the course. “The First Engagements seminar is meant to be a microcosm of a liberal education,” said Kathleen Jagger, interim vice president and dean of the college. “In these three weeks, first-year students will begin to appreciate the challenge of a college level seminar, strengthen their academic skills and fortify their self-confidence in ways that leave them better prepared to begin the fall term.” According to John
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