Well, we're under a tornado watch.
Oh Dang, I didn't know that.
Well, hopefully he's able to get on soon if not.
I don't really know. I don't think that we can accept texts.
Yeah, I don't think yeah to say I don't think we can access the.
Alright, well we'll give everyone a minute to get on and then hopefully he'll be here too.
I'm great, I'm great and hello to everyone on here. I am so sorry for dropping in a little bit late. We have storms here and power slash Internet is in and out and so.
Yeah, the reality of the situation. But yeah yeah, thank you Catherine and Elizabeth for for being here.
To all of our attendees, I can introduce myself. My name is Shiro Burnett. I am one of the counselors here in the office, Swanee, and yeah, so we're glad to have you. This is another of what we're calling our Swanee sessions, and so these are just opportunities to hear from some current students signs from different topics. So if you're joining us from our last session where we talked about athletics, this session is all geared about academic.
Life here the academic rigor help students find the majors minors, all that type of stuff. But I will go ahead and let if they haven't already. Let Catherine and Elizabeth introduce themselves or their from their major at Swanee.
Sure, well hello everyone. So excited y'all are here. Virtually my name is Catherine. I am a senior. I'm from Norman OK and I'm a biology major with a concentration in ecology and biodiversity and I'm also an Italian studies minor.
Hi guys, I'm Elizabeth. I'm also a senior and I'm from Chattanooga, TN. I'm I'm also a biology major with a concentration in ecology and biodiversity. I'm an environmental studies minor. I'm also a theater fellow, and yeah, that's majority.
Perfect awesome so to all of the attendees. Uh, another thing to note and so on. The right hand side of your screen you should see a chat box and so throughout this entire event, any questions that you have about any of the information that we're going over, please feel free to put those in the chat. I know some of you put in some questions beforehand through the registration, but all throughout this event, please use the chat feature we do use what's called a moderated chat.
And so don't worry if you don't see your question immediately, I'll see it on our end before like kind of carrying it over to like the main chat. But yeah, definitely feel free to put in all of those questions, but just to kind of start out and get the conversation rolling. Can both of you just describe a little bit?
How you decided your major? I think that's always an interesting process 'cause we see on our end when students apply there, I'm going to be a neuroscience major and I'm going to beat this. I myself, I said I was going to study economics and then when I came to this morning I did anthropology. So I just think it's always an interesting story how students kind of got in the path of what they're majoring in, and if that was always the case, you know from the very start of their their whole process here.
So OK, so when I was in high school.
I I I knew, I was always interested in the environment on what level wasn't sure I grew up. Kind of. My school was along the Tennessee River, so we kind of got to do some interaction between kind of flora and fauna along the Tennessee River and I found myself having like.
A particular interest in animals kind of aquatic ecology related. Got to Swanee didn't really know what specific major I wanted to be. I knew I wanted to have something where I would be able to be outside researching animals and plants.
And luckily Swanee had this very specific.
Concentration within the biology major that allowed me to do that.
And Catherine, I have both gotten to do some really, really cool research with animals specifically, like salamanders. It's a big big swannies, a big biodiversity hotspot, and it's a really cool major because basically we get to study what we study in the classroom and go outside and actually pick up these little critters. Catherine and I are in a herpetology class right now, so reptiles and amphibians and I don't think.
I think getting to Swanee and looking at the 13,000 acres of land I knew I had, I really wanted to do something and use that in this major was kind of the perfect thing to utilize all of that.
Yeah, my story is kind of similar to Elizabeth I came into Suwanee actually on a pre vet track I grew up loving animals and I thought the best way to do that would be a veterinarian and I had shadowed vets and I really enjoyed it and I still think that I would enjoy that as a career path. But as I was coming through Suwanee I really wanted to take the outdoor classes.
And like Elizabeth was saying, I really wanted to take advantage of these 13,000 acres and we have incredible classes and professors and opportunities to get out there and use it. And so I I give credit mainly to my academic advisor for my major. I met Doctor Kristen Secolo freshman year. I did an island ecology program with her. Really enjoyed working with her and learning from her. Ask her to be my advisor sophomore year, and then she kind of pulled me into the ecology classes.
And encouraged me to pursue that passion and I've really loved it. I loved all the opportunities I've gotten and after working as a camp counselor this summer, I've found a passion for both working with children and the environment, and I'm combining that into an environmental education job career in the next few years. So I'm really pretty jazzed about that. A little off of the prefet track and how I started, but really, I just went with what I wanted to do and what I enjoyed while I was here. And that's where I landed.
Awesome and so with that I'm gonna.
Kind of progress over here to this slide, which I know a lot of people may not be able to see 'cause the font, but this kind of lays out all of the different majors that we have here and I really want to emphasize with whatever you're deciding to do. You don't have to choose your freshman year, you know that's the great thing about being in a local arts institution, and specifically a place like Swanee, which, just like Catherine said, choosing your advisor your sophomore year. That's the time where you're declaring your major. And so your first two years here.
Really get to shop around and find that right fit. Take some classes in something you know that you definitely think that you might do, but also take some classes and something that you may have never considered or may have never had the opportunity to do so. That's what I did. I came here and I definitely took any fun class, but I also took an archaeology class and I was like, oh wait, I look forward to these classes. I am doing extra readings and so maybe I need to think about this a little bit more seriously.
And so yeah, that's a a great thing to consider.
Speaking of these first two years, can each of you kind of talk a little bit about the general education requirements? Because they are a little bit different at Swanee than some other places, like with the different learning objectives that we have, how you kind of navigated that process, and maybe potentially what your favorite class was outside of, you know your wheelhouse of what you're doing right now.
Do you wanna start Catherine?
Sure I can. So the way that our learning objectives are organized, it's more by theme and like a way to learn something. So one of the ones that I think about often is like and I don't remember the exact wording of it. But it's like a G4 and it's like learning about other religions and other ways of thinking. And so I took a bioethics class and it was in the philosophy department, not a class I ever would have taken otherwise, but.
I was interested in biology and in the pre health kind of field and so I decided to take it and it was an eye opening class. It decided for me that I didn't want to go into ethics as a career path but it was really interesting to think about and I I think about that Class A lot and I think it's influenced how I work in other classes and how I'm probably going to work in the workforce as well and how to interact with people and it. It was really eye opening I think and I was really thankful that I got to take a class like that.
'cause I never would have picked that without that general education requirement.
Yeah, I think the the requirements are pretty unique to other schools because like Catherine was saying, it does have this kind of theme. It's not like a you're taking a math you're taking, so it's like you know some of them are exploring like past, present and future. But there's and I even remember for the.
Everyone was like it's the lab requirements. The science requirement, which I think a lot of like.
You know more of humanities people oriented people were kind of scared of, but there's like really, really cool classes within those Gen Eds. That kind of fulfill that and you and you don't necessarily. It's not like a chem lab, so like I took a geology class that that was probably my favorite outside of my major.
It was pretty intimidated 'cause I was. You know, I like the outside, but rocks just seemed so specific and.
I think that also 'cause I took that while I was figuring out what I wanted to do with my major. I think that, like solidified. Also what I wanted to do so they do help you in choosing your major choosing career path like Catherine was saying, yeah, it was one where we got to be outside. Got to go on hikes. We got to go in caves. All while you know, learning geology. So I would say that was the most beneficial thing for.
The Gen Ed requirements is to kind of it gives you that base layer to then also help you figure out your major. That was, I guess the biggest thing for me that helped me, yeah.
Definitely, and a good thing to know and they both have said it. But just to reiterate, the nice thing with in this whole process is that you still get to choose. You choose within that requirement, so it's not. You have to take this one chemistry class, it's more so thinking about that objective and thinking about that skill and then still being able to choose their catalog and still find that good fit for you know one of them is like writing intensive and like reading closely and so traditionally that's like English 101.
But that you know, you may find that requirement through a philosophy class or humanities class. There's a lot of opportunities to still kind of create your own path, and so no one, students general education requirements or look exactly the same.
Another important factor that is language requirements is that something that all swaney students are going to do during their time here is taking a foreign language. So can both of you talk a little bit about your language experience?
Yeah, so I took Latin all throughout high school and I really liked it, but I kind of think I think I once I got here I wanted to switch it up. I wasn't one of those people like I wasn't super.
You know language oriented. I was like, oh this is something that I kind of feel like that's you know, like oh, I have to do this. But once I started taking I decided to take Spanish and I loved my Spanish classes. My professors were amazing, they were just.
Very interactive and all professors are mostly like this at Swanee, but I definitely did not find it. Something I was like drudging through to get over and a lot of people like once they have these.
Once they get through their, you know general their language requirements. They end up either minoring in a language because they they like it so much, and they realize that they're really good at it. And it's very interesting. And it couples well with their major. We have a friend that's like in our ecology and biodiversity major. Like very, very proficient in Spanish. I think either double majoring or minoring in it, but they go well together. All of the majors, and I think that the language requirement is definitely a good thing. Although you may not think so at first, it ends up being really beneficial.
Yeah, I I agree with Elizabeth I decided to take Italian. I also took Latin in high school actually, but I really wanted to study abroad in Italy. That was a big goal for me and I knew that as as I said I was Privett. I knew that I could still do all my heart biology classes and study abroad because Swanee makes an effort to get that available. If someone wants that. So I had worked with my academic advisor. I had all my classes arranged so I could do a whole semester abroad and then COVID hit so.
I didn't get to go, but then I worked hard to try and get a summer abroad and that ended up not working either because of COVID. So unfortunately that didn't work out, but I've really enjoyed my time with the Italian department. I really love all the professors that I've worked with and in that semester that I was supposed to go abroad, I hadn't signed up for an Italian class, and one of the professors went out of his way to make an independent study for me and two other people so that we could keep working on our Italian skills and not miss out on a whole semester.
And I think he felt a little bad for us too. 'cause we were supposed to be in Italy and we were here instead, but that was ended up being one of my favorite classes. We watched a show on Netflix in Italian and gossiped about the characters working on our colloquial Italian. So I, I really think that even though it's a requirement and some people might think of it as like, oh, you just have to get these few classes done like the professors will put their all into it. And if you want to go as far as you want to go, they'll go with you. I ended up minoring in it, just 'cause I loved it so much.
I don't really think I'll use Italian all that much unless I go and visit Italy, which I'd love to do, but it was just something that I really enjoyed and I really got a lot out of it.
Yeah, that's great to hear. And another thing, especially with these two languages in particular, there's a lot of like outside of the classroom. Opportunities to keep up languages here on campus, and so both Spanish and Italian have like a theme house here on campus. And so if those are two languages that you're interested in in total of our language houses, we have a Spanish, French, German, Russian, Italian, and there's a kind of like fully immersive like language learning experiences. You only speaking that language 24/7 while you're living there.
I lived in the Spanish House when I was a student here, but it's a great way to kind of keep up practice even if you're not taking a class, but also, just like Catherine is describing, like those conversational like colloquialisms, this is that type of environment, like if you're not a bribe. This is where you start to get that. But Speaking of study abroad and things like that.
Actually, I'll take a moment to pause. There was a question that came and and I guess this is still going. In that same vein of like off campus experiences. But someone asked if you could Catherine explain a little bit more about the Allen ecology program that you did.
Jack
07:16:22 PM
What is the Island Ecology Program?
Of course, I love talking about the island Ecology program, so it is a program that you apply for as a student. I believe that rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors can apply. I applied my freshman year being a rising sophomore and and it is. We had nine people accepted my year and it's a half credit in the spring where you just go on Friday afternoons and you do readings, you meet the professor you learn about the island you're going to be on.
It's called Saint Catherine's island. It's off the coast of.
South Carolina, Georgia. Why it was so long ago, I don't remember. I think it's Georgia. And yes, thank you.
And then during the summer you go for five weeks. It is a privately owned island, so there's no development on it. There's only like a dining hall, a lab space, and then cabins or like little houses that we live in. So the students live there for five whole weeks and then four different professors rotate in and out during that time, and each of the professors teaches a different section about the island. So one is the geology, one is the hydrology, one is the plants and one is the wildlife. And maybe it's a little different now 'cause mine was awhile ago.
But you just learn all about the island and island ecology, and you do so much research. You do like three or four days of hands on learning with the professor, and then you design complete and then present the findings of your own research project for that subject. So you get really good at proposing research ideas, conducting the research, and then presenting your data and writing a whole paper about it. And it's just so much fun you get outside, you get muddy, I've.
Hell, baby alligators, and I've done research with fish out on a trolling boat, and it was just a once in a lifetime experience and I recommend anyone who's interested apply because it was super awesome.
And then Elizabeth. Have you had any type of like research experience yet so far?
Yes, so I I got to last summer. It was kind of an internship, but I was it was kind of a research internship but still employed to the university. I got to do kind of wildlife technician research and basically it was very intensive field work that I got to do during the summer. We got to work with snapping turtles, field mice, all kinds of salamanders. All kinds of frogs. We got to do bat surveys.
Frog call surveys and this is all in the domain and it was. It was such an amazing job to have and on top of that, I've gotten to do some research with the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute, so that was something really cool that's kind of off campus. I was actually able to.
Through Doctor Christine Sickle, who we both work with, she knew I was interested in salamanders and she knew they needed somebody, and this was during kovid when we were kind of all we had like a two month winter break, and I was kind of going stir crazy and I got to actually go down there. It was outside. They had these little mesocosm set up and I got to work with salamanders every day. And this was just an opportunity. I got through my teacher that knew I was interested, and I've also done independent in the process of writing a research paper.
They're getting published also with the Tennessee Conservation Institute, which is 40 minutes away from us. But yeah, the wildlife job this summer, coupled with just a lot of really cool things that you can do around here, but that's more of a homebody person. So that's why Catherine wanted to probably go abroad. Do that kind of thing. But there's also really cool things here that you can do very similar experiences hands on animals.
Awesome, yeah. And the nice thing to mention with like both of these experiences and I'll jump ahead to a different slide, but these are all normal things that all sweating students can get to do. Whether it's on campus, I'm doing research or if you find this great opportunity this off campus. Same with internships. Study abroad.
Notwithstanding a global pandemic, but these are all kind of incorporated into what we call this funny pledge, and so for that first one, you know, pledging funding for one of these types of internships or research assistantships, especially considering then you have the opportunity to explore those options that may be unpaid. All of this is still good experience, and we never want to have to like turn down a really good experience just because of its location or some form of inaccessibility. We have entire center dedicated to, kind of.
Playing bridge that gap and then secondly in that same vein, you know.
Again, not with setting a goal pandemic, but pledging access to a semester long study away program and no additional tuition costs. So whatever your financial aid scholarship, any of that ends up being during your time here at Swanee that will carry you over whether you're in Morocco, France, Jordan, Greece. It'll be the same thing and so kind of going back to like study abroad and study away.
And then also languages someone mentioned. I would like to learn Italian at Swanee. However, I don't speak at all. Would you still recommend taking Italian class in that case?
Nahuel
07:21:55 PM
I would like to learn Italian at Sewanee (I don't speak it at all). Would you recommend taking Italian classes in this case?
Yes, I did not speak any Italian coming in either. I started in 103, which is beginning, but getting Italian and it's totally acceptable. That's absolutely fine. We actually only get one or two people who took Italian in high school. I can think of one person in my class right now and I'm in a 300 level class that's taught in Italian and it's about Italian pros, so you can come in having no knowledge whatsoever of the language and you'll be just fine.
Awesome yeah, great advice. Yeah, a lot of students end up starting completely from scratch with languages. I think even if yeah like like him saying even if you took something to high school, you'll have to be tide to that. But at the same time I know a lot of students who have done multiple languages during next time this morning. It can be a lot of work, but like if that's what you're passionate about and that's how you want to dedicate your studies, that can definitely be an opportunity.
Speaking of study away, someone did ask a question like does that mean students study another college for a semester? Yeah, so in essence, we have an entire office dedicated to helping students like find a program and find like a different institution that best fits their interest. Swanee does have its own programs as well, though, so there's like a Swanee.
Program, there's like a European studies program, but yeah, Elizabeth, did you have any type of broad experience?
Alice
07:23:28 PM
What is the study away program? Does it mean students can study in another college for a semester?
I do not have any abroad experience, I do I I will say the your. What is the European one so that one is very very popular within Swanee students. A lot of my friends were trying to do that. One of my friends is art history and she was trying to go do that. But there's also I know a lot of people think that like abroad programs are lacking with sciences and I think that although we don't necessarily have those programs.
We've had students. One of my good friends is actually in Iceland right now doing like environmental, kind of.
Climate change studies. And we've had. We've had people go to like cool barrier islands, so there's there's study abroad programs for all different types of measures. I do think people usually find themselves thinking it's only for certain, you know humanities or something like that. So that's something I would touch on. But Catherine probably had them or actually going through with it, and I wasn't. I wasn't planning on sitting abroad anyway, but lots of my friends were.
Shiro Burnette
07:24:34 PM
https://new.sewanee.edu/offices/university-offices/office-of-global-citizenship/study-abroad/
Yeah, well Elizabeth kind of mentioned something as well that we do have Suwanee programs and then Suwanee approved programs that are from outside sources. But also if you find a cool program that you're interested in, you can get it approved. So that's what I had done. I specifically wanted to be in CNN. I wanted to be doing a homestay and all these like requirements that I wanted and I found a program that did that and I applied to it and got accepted and so I got my Italian professors to approve the courses so I could get credit for it. I had gone through all these steps.
COVID why, but it's definitely possible to find a program that you're really interested in. Even if Swaney doesn't already accept it. You can get it to to work.
Definitely, and there's a lot of resources like I said and I just put in a link to that office so it's the office of Global citizenship, and so if there's any international students with us this evening, that same office that you're gonna be working with to get your visa situated, all that type of logistics is that same exact office for study abroad, and so right now there's an ongoing list of over 200 different programs on this. Students can kind of already choose from, and that covers about 65 different countries, and to Elizabeth's point, it's not just the humanities.
There's definitely some sciences in their business as well, like when I was here, I knew students who study abroad at the London School of Economics, which is really popular option for business students. But yeah, definitely, literally something for everyone. And if you are like Catherine or myself who did the same thing, if you look at that list of 200 and you're like nothing sticks out, you can do some research, find the right fit for you. And yeah, as long as you work with that office, work with your academic advisor.
Make sure that credits transfer over if you're trying to get something to account for your major, that type of thing just have those conversations, but that is very much like the infrastructure is there, and it's a normalized process, so not too too stressful, hopefully.
Daphne
07:26:46 PM
Hi! Would double majoring while minoring in a language prevent someone from graduating in four years? How have you scheduled your classes to ensure that you stay on track? Thank you :^)
Double majoring, so I'll just read it for beetem. So what double majoring while minoring in a language prevents someone from graduating within four years? How do you schedule your classes to ensure that you've always stayed on track?
Well, I'm not a double major, but I do have friends who are double majors, double majoring with a minor would be a challenge. You could totally do it though. You just have to work with your academic advisors. You might have to have a few different ones in different departments, depending on which majors you choose, and really make sure you get in all your prerequisites and then all your requirements for your major. It's kind of a game. You kinda have to pick it out and play and figure out where it's going to work.
But yeah, you could totally do that if that's really what you're passionate about and what you want to do. You'd have to commit to it in the sense of like you actually need to do your work and you gotta stay on top of stuff. But if that's not an issue, go for it. That sounds really cool.
There's also summer school. I know a lot of students, a lot of like premed students, people that they're kind of like. I have so many classes I have to take for a certain something, and in this case you would have, you know.
A rigorous load, but summer school is really fun and that would be a way to kind of get you could take like 2 classes in the summer time and so you would even have those on going into the next year. And I know a lot of people take advantage of the summer opportunities and you get to be here, and it's really fun. It's pretty in the summer, but that would always be. That would be a way to kind of help with that type of thing so.
Definitely, and my biggest piece of advice for students who are ever thinking about double majoring if I'm already having a conversation with him like at this stage, I think that's like, you know priority number one like double majoring, requires planning and so if you're already thinking about double majoring, you're kind of already on track to double major because it does take that a little bit of insight on the forefront. It's a lot easier to go in knowing that you're potentially going to double major.
As opposed to sophomore Slash junior year thinking, oh like I might wanna pick this up, that's gonna be a little bit more difficult. Also keep in mind, sometimes classes can count for two majors or count for a major in a minor. And so if you're double majoring in pretty similar disciplines, your classes might be. You can be a little bit more strategic about how you quote UN quote, like double dip with those course selections. But if you're majoring and trying to double major in.
Economics and anthropology. For instance, there may not be that much double dipping opportunity, so that might you know, be an opportunity where you think of summer school. You also have the opportunity working with your academic advisor on the standard course load. Here is 4 courses per semester, but you can't apply for like an overload semester and take 5 so I know some people who have double majored. They have taken 5 courses at some point during their swaney career.
But again, you're gonna have to think strategic about it because you don't wanna take five writing intensive classes in the same semester. Please don't do that.
There's a report, and especially if you're doing a language on top of that, like you're going to be writing five papers, one of them is going to be in a different language altogether, but yeah, so I think just step planning on the forefront. That's really what's going to help out. But kind of in line with that question.
I know a very popular question that we see in registration and then just in this event in general it is that transition process and how rigorous is Swanee and so can both of you. Just kind of talk a little bit about your transition from high school here freshman year and then yeah just how you stayed on top of it. And then also maybe potentially how that may be specific to your major with 'cause there's like types of work and so.
You know, if you're disciplined necessitates slightly different study habits, then another discipline may necessitate.
I wanted a school similar to Swanee and the fact that it was going to be small and I was going to be able to. I wanted something sort of like high school where I had. I would have a good relationship with my teachers. I could get help from them really at all times if they weren't busy because I knew that that would help and I I'm somebody that likes. I like to be. I like to be challenged and I think I knew that Swanee did have.
It's really it's. It's what you make of a make of it in terms of rigor, but it's not a super you're not going to get to just hands off. Don't do any work. Don't study outside of class, not that type of school.
There's there's certain standards we we hold for the students.
And I think that it is definitely in terms of types of workload depending on the major Katherine and I in our kind of biology ecology, a lot of kind of independent study, research type things, so we're we're having to do field work, and we're having to kind of right.
Mock research papers and a lot of that kind of.
Intensive just, you know, strategic writing. But you know, maybe we don't have as much reading. My English major friends that you know, they have to sit down and read many many pages and write many many essays. Not that we don't. I mean I. I do a lot of writing in the biology major, but you you do have to spend time outside of class and because because it is that smaller field you have discussion based classes and you do want to be prepared for those.
It's not. It's not fun to just sit there and the teachers asking questions and nobody nobody saying anything. It is really fun to get to participate with your other students and your teachers and talk. So it's it's more like rewarding to do the work because you do have those relationships with the professors and you do kind of hold your yourself to a standard because you want to. Kind of, you know, you want to enjoy your experience here, and I think that like it's you make the most of it and.
You know you can make it as rigorous as possible, but I think it's more of just wanting to do well and in my case at least.
Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think the biggest difference for me between high school and college was my time management. You know I went from having six or seven classes a day to having two classes a day, and yet I didn't have a moment to spare like I didn't understand where all the time went. So I immediately got a calendar. I write everything out, everything is color coded in my life. I don't think I could survive if it wasn't and I you really have to find those moments between classes or like.
Right before dinner or right after to work on your homework. Because like Elizabeth said, if you don't do it and you don't, you're not able to participate in class. You're not getting anything out of it, and that the point of you know, going to class and doing well is so that you learn something and you really get something out of the experience. And I've found that there are some days that I don't do the work quite as well and I don't. I don't get much out of that class and I should have, and I should put in the effort so that I'm.
You know I'm paying for these classes. I want to get everything out of it. Yeah I would. I would agree with a lot of what Elizabeth said too.
Yeah, one thing that I found like doing these events and talking with current students. What helps is exactly what pattern and lives with her saying is that that intentionality to your your work and dedicating time 'cause you're going from an area most likely where you've had a lot of structure and so in place of that you have to kind of create a structure. And so I know a lot of students who use Google Calendar like crazy, like very religiously and so yeah, finding that method that really works for you to.
Create some intentionality behind your studies, because then when you are in class, it it. It is a lot more you know fruitful to having had an hours worth of engaged conversation as opposed to an hour of sitting. And maybe you know, taking in something every now and then.
Kind of still. In that same vein of of the rigor of coursework, can both of you talk about just support networks on campus? Whether that's you know peer support, whether that's support from your professors, your advisors, other campus resources like the writing center, or any type of you know caps, any type of support? Yeah, just talking to those.
Yeah, I've I've been very lucky to have a great friend group that I actually found during find your place the first year program right before pre orientation or the pre orientation program. Crazy enough, we're still friends four years later, but you know yesterday we had a rough day in our friend group so we went and got ice cream up Sonic and just having those friends having those little moments to be able to pick yourself up. That's been really useful in my 4 years.
They also say relationships with professors I meet once a week with my academic advisor. And, you know, we do a lot of work on my honors thesis that I'm writing right now, but also it's a good time to decompress. We chat about life, we talk about where I'm going and what's going on, and knowing that she's invested in me not just as a student, but as a person, and she really wants to help me go on to life. The best person that I am coming from Suwanee that's that's gone a long way with me and has helped me a lot through these four years.
Catherine, do you want to talk about speaking and listening centers since you're?
Oh sure, so we also have great tutoring opportunities. We have a writing center and a speaking for Center for speaking and listening. So the writing center. I've got a lot of times with. As Elizabeth mentioned, we write a lot of biology papers. I've been in English class. I've written English papers and its students who are trained tutors to help you with your writing. So I've gone in and they've destroyed my paper and helped me put it back together. Although you know stronger than it was.
But then the Center for speaking and listening is for public speaking. So in a lot of classes, you'll have to give presentations or you'll have to lead a discussion or some. Or maybe you'll have an interview for an internship or a job or that sort of thing. And I took a public speaking class and then I was asked to be a tutor and I've gone through some training. I love it. I get to help students from all different departments with all sorts of different presentations and projects, and we work on everything from like how do you make this?
PowerPoint, what should you include in your presentation too? I'm absolutely terrified to talk in front of people. What are some tricks? How do I get past speaking anxiety and I still go. I actually have an appointment tonight after this to go and talk over my senior seminar speech. So it's really been helpful for all different classes.
Yeah, and I would say it's like it's fun to have.
The academic advisors to go to.
Then you do have kind of a less structured conversation because you are close, you develop a relationship. You become almost like you're have a friendly relationship with your professors, and that's something I've found really beneficial because I'm very hard on myself in school and I've even found you know I'll meet and my professor would be like you're. You're cute, you know. Like they almost will calm me down and kind of just.
I'll just be frazzled and they'll put me back in. You know, everything is fine, but in in terms of for me, I guess my peers are some of my my biggest.
Supporters and I just have really great friends here and I think swani is one of the easier places to find friends because of how small it is and because of how many cool things there are to do. You're just like constantly seeing people and doing activities that are something you might find interesting that somebody else is and.
Yeah, you know, after a long day of school you know it's really nice to have people like all today was. It was a long day and to do that with both, you know faculty and students is is a really cool thing that SWANEY has and allows so yeah.
Definitely, definitely. I think throughout you know, here in our office and admissions like everything that we talked about, the idea of the Community structure here kind of constantly gets brought up just because there's so many sectors of campus. Whereas reinforced, you know whether it's those relationships with your professors or your peers, the Honor code it all just kind of works into a very supportive environment, even as like a staff member like I graduated 20 years ago. But very recently I was talking with two of my professors that I had.
Just like last week emailing back and forth, just not even work related but just you know, developing connections and you know.
Based on you know that whole structure that I had when I was a student and so yeah, I definitely think that it's something that's great to have when you're here. But it's also something that you carry with even post graduation, so it's not something that you ever have to think. Oh, this has a timestamp attached to it or anything like that. This is very much a great level of commitment. And yeah, that you can take with you.
William
07:40:27 PM
Would you have any tips on balancing academics, jobs and extracurricular activities?
And so let's see looking at the questions again and another one that we had was, do you have any tips on this? Is my Mac to time management? So any tips on balancing both academics? But also any job slash extracurricular activities that you're involved in?
So I don't, so I never necessarily had a job here, so I don't know if Catherine or speak more to that. But we do have work studies and I have a lot of friends that are in work studies and work for various things on campus. There's really cool works that he's too like it's not, you know, there's you can work at the coffeehouse. You can, you know, work for the admissions department you can.
Do wildlife you know research like I was doing this summer, but throughout the entire year?
But I guess in terms of extracurricular and managing that.
I found it very important to spend a lot of time outside, given that you know sometimes you're inside studying and you're looking at a computer, or you're writing.
I think that luckily Swannies campus allows us to do really fun things in like a short. You know, I'd like to go on the 20 minute run for a study break and I can go down near University Farm and they just had we now have little baby goats because the we have goats at our university farm and they just gave birth so you know it's a fun. It's a fun little distraction, but I think it's really really necessary to you do have enough time to take breaks. It's not like you have to be sitting for 10 hours straight like everyone.
Everyone needs take breaks and sometimes if it is a busy day, I find that you know my social hour is going to eat with my friends at dinner and that's like that's fine to me because that's one day I know it's going to be busier and I know that I'm going to have a really fun kind of long dinner and see everyone. But I think I think it's very doable here because you could just like step outside and go do something cool really quickly. It's not like I have to drive 30 minutes to go on a hike like I can just step outside and go for a quick hike. And I know that not everyone you know.
Let's be outside, but for me that's that's how I kind of balance my time between academics being outside, hanging out with friends. But yeah, it is doable and with with work the hours aren't like super super long. You can work as much as you want and work studies, but they're not going to like have you for an 8 hour.
Ship today 'cause you're a student and that comes first, so yeah.
Yeah, definitely agree with all that Shiro already mentioned Google Calendar. I'm also a big Google Calendar person. I mentioned my colors on my calendar. My I'm a physical calendar and I'm my Google Calendar and the colors are all synced up and it's a whole strategy. But I find that it works and I like Elizabeth said we're students first, so I usually put my classes in first and then I fill in all the other stuff. I'm on the equestrian team so I.
Send my class schedule to my coach and she fits me into lessons. So I put that on there and then I figure out Owens my sorority meeting going to be. We'll figure that out and then through all of those other extracurriculars, I signed up for a time to be a tutor. I chose Sunday afternoons, 'cause that was pretty free for me. And then I mean, Elizabeth said this too. But meals are a great time to meet with friends 'cause you have to eat anyway. Might as well be with friends. So pretty much every day in my friend, groups texting a lunch at 11 dinner at five. Yeah, let's do it.
So I I work those ways in there too, and it's it's definitely a different structure than high school is, which can be kind of alarming and confusing coming in. But you get used to it pretty quickly and you figure out different strategies that are going to work for you and everyone's going through at the same time as well, so you can chat with friends and see what's working for them or what's not working. I have a friend who's up till 2:00 AM emailing our professor and I'm like that's not for me, but OK, you know if that works for you, that's great, but so you'll.
You figure out what works and how to prioritize what you want to.
Because, and I know a lot because we do live on campus and we do live in dorms, I find it really rewarding to get to come back from like.
Studying all day knowing that.
I'm going to get to kind of hang out with my friends. I'm as a senior, you know. You get to after freshman year. Pick you live with and my hall. Right now I'm like surrounded by all my friends and you can strategically do that and so like being because we're in dorms, which I know to some people might be a drawback. But I get to just kind of hang out with all my friends if I'm not studying and to me that's like one of the most fun things I can do because.
I know I'm not just in my room by myself, I can just walk down the hall and that's a nice break to have two. And that's just kind of a convenience we have, by all living kind of in communal, you know, communal living so.
Definitely, definitely, yeah, and I think that's a great point, especially like the living arrangements, because even in all of the different residence halls, they're still fairly small, like the largest one we have is like a little over 100, which is still doable in terms of like you can still get to know people who are on your hall and in that environment, and so it's very easy to develop community and then going back to extracurriculars. I think one thing that's interesting is that even though we've talked about how rigorous this warning curriculum is, I think it's also very normalized. That's warning. Students are.
Very involved across campus. It's it's rare to find someone who's just in one thing. They're going to be involved in a lot of different things, and so by nature students are kind of constantly bouncing around different places on campus, but.
Going back to developing a schedule, developing a calendar, keeping that all in check just because it is important to have that scheduled time with friends but also have a scheduled time. You know for yourself or something that you enjoy. Whether that's like an equestrian lesson or sitting by a waterfall, because that's something you can do here or by a lake. All these different things, just that, intentionality.
William
07:46:23 PM
Great, thank you!
Right, so we can go back to our questions.
So this is kind of backtracking a little bit to like research opportunities on campus and someone was asking how easy it is it for students to kind of get involved in research here.
Alice
07:46:38 PM
I know Sewanee has a lot of research opportunities, and I was wondering how easy is it for students to get one?
Yes, I think we both got involved freshman year. Uhm, I got involved 'cause I heard. Well my my brother was a senior my freshman year and he told me hey Doctor Cycle is really cool. You should email her and I was like cool I'll do it and I did and she has a research project in the winter for spotted salamanders and it's kind of all hands on deck so she'll take any volunteers. So I got into that, loved it, loved working with her. And then I took a class with her and then you know the rest is history.
But really, anyone can get involved. I try and recruit freshmen all the time for that because we have to start building up our ranks and then that has led to independent research on my own that I'm now turning into an honors thesis. So oftentimes people are interested in a professor or interested in some specific work, or have a friend who's in a lab and then they reach out to that professor get involved, somehow work on the professors, research for a little bit, and then they can turn it into their own research if they want to.
I gotta do it. You gotta do it.
Yes, very very similar experience. I think I like saw a picture of somebody measuring a spotted salamander. I was like, I, I gotta do that. So Catherine and I both. We both started our freshman year and we've been doing it for four years and then same with Catherine. That kind of led to and this is another thing to say is I was in a class with a professor and she actually approached me after the class and said, hey, the aquarium is actually doing this really cool study on. It's an endemic freshwater fish.
They would like a student to kind of Co author and write, you know, help him write the paper. I I would have gone up and you know asked for opportunities. But she actually approached me and just seeing that I obviously was interested in the course.
It was a fresh water conservation course and now my papers published and I'm also doing an honors thesis and it was it was something that honestly like.
I wanted to do. I was kind of nervous to you, but I was approached even by the professor, not that that you know. People go to the professors to ask, but it it's just so easy because of connections and how small it is and the relationships you build with people for independent research. And it's a lot like research. It's difficult, it's it's a lot of time. It's a time commitment, but usually it's something that you're already interested in, and it only kind of like aids with.
It just helps you with what you're.
Studying and I found it really rewarding. So yeah, very easy to get involved.
Yeah, and I think that Elizabeth and I are very specific to outdoors and you know our salamander research. But people do research in all different departments. I have friends in the English department who have helped professors with research research for their papers and like things that I don't think of as research, but they totally are. People in psychology are doing research in politics. All sorts of places, so it's not just.
Science research that you have the opportunity to do here.
Yeah, my friends doing politics research right now and then. Psychology like child psychology. She worked at Yale like the Yeah every every subject has some sort of cool research opportunity.
Definitely yeah, and this kind of goes back to like those great opportunities to have to network with professors. And you know, developing those relationships because then they can know you to that level.
They know exactly what you're interested in, where you potentially going to be in the future, how to set you up to do that, and that's you know, great level of personalization that I got to have. Sounds like you guys have had as well and a lot of students that I know of, but yeah. And then let me go back to our questions.
Ah, yes, so this is the fun one as seniors.
Someone is asking about the comps and how our comps. How is that process of preparation? Is it daunting right now? Is it fun? But yeah.
But we are we are done with ours.
Carlisle
07:50:47 PM
Can you explain more about your cumulative exams at the end of your major? How are you preparing?
We have finished ours, thankfully. Yay, we passed. It was great.
We'll graduate so comprehensive exams. If you haven't heard of them, it's like one big exam that you take your senior year and the idea is that you are now competent in this major in this subject, so it draws from all the classes that were required for your major. So for us that was like biology 1:30 that we took freshman year and 1:33. We took freshman year introductory level classes, but then also like ecology and genetics and conservation and that sort of thing.
But our major, so each major has a different type of comp. So some write a paper all semester and then have to orally defend it. Some are given the prompt one morning and have to write it one sitting. We had five different exams, 2 or multiple choice and then three were short answers on research papers that we had been giving in advance.
My personal journey in copying I, you know, there's a lot of build up to it. You've worked so hard it's all these four years of studying. I thought it was kind of enjoyable because I knew so much. You know, I really had studied. I worked hard. I kept my notes and I knew what to expect. And then writing the short answer is I was like, yeah, like this is my jam. I know what I'm talking about. I could talk about this forever. I went right up to the time limit 'cause I was just so excited about it.
It was a lot. I was exhausted afterwards. You know, takes a lot of energy to write comprehensive sentences for five hours, but it it? I enjoyed it. And then afterwards you celebrate with your friends and it's like it's a good time and we have a really fun major. We're good friends within our major, and so we celebrated together as well, which was fun.
Yeah, it's uh, it is, it's it is mentally and physically exhausting just studying for it because you put pressure on yourself because it is, you know, your major.
And I do think, yeah, you get to celebrate with your friends and it's super fun. But I do think I remember going into it. My sister. So my sister went here, also comped and.
I was like, oh, I just I don't understand like no other colleges make you do this like why do we do this? And my sister was like you know I found it to be a really rewarding experience and at the time I didn't understand that because I hadn't even I was just you know. But once I started studying with everyone and once I actually took it I was like Dang like I actually understand. I know my, you know like you you do know it in the professors want you to succeed at something. You've been studying that long and you do know what you're talking about is so it.
It does everyone always like you're not ready until you're ready and that's just like the best.
Advice that kind of people give, but it was. It was a really cool experience and I I'm I'm grateful for that. 'cause I did get to touch on touch up on what I may have forgotten and I also it gave me a little bit of a confidence boost to be like OK I know what I'm majoring in. I feel calm so yeah, it was fun.
We had food we like lived in there, yeah.
Yeah, and this, like Elizabeth said, the studying was hard, but I actually enjoyed it because we took over like a room and Spencer a whole like we wrote all over the boards. We had piles of notebooks. We had all these snacks and professors would come in and and like answer questions for us and we'd be like welcome to our crazy lab like we don't know what's going on, but we did and we were we had a good time you know? I mean it's just incredible that we were able to learn so much over our four years and be able to show it.
You know we had retained it, which I think is impressive.
Awesome yeah. I also for my Cox took over a room and Spencer in my cohort. That second floor like Nice conference room area.
Yeah, we we somehow reserved that but but one thing I want to emphasize is that, yeah, like they're both same with comps like. The idea isn't to like trip you up or anything like that. It's really just to make sure that you have a degree in anthropology or you have a degree in politics. You know politics, or at least the basic tenants. And this especially me. Personally I found it was especially beneficial as a senior, because as you're going on into Graduate School or into like the workforce.
You kind of like one fall in love with like the major all over again, but it also kind of like prepares you for interviews and all that type of stuff where you may be asked field specific things and it gives you an opportunity to really take a deep dive into that theory or different. You know methodological frameworks to be able to have those conversations with someone office 1 E campus because a lot of people's educational experience that they haven't done an internship or something like that would be just here.
And so it kind of gives you those skills to then.
Go on to the next thing. Speaking of which though, as seniors do, you guys have any plans for the future?
Staying in line with environmental, you know sciences as a whole or any different paths on the forefront.
Yeah, so I'm I'm wanting to take a year off, but I do want to go to grad school. That's always kind of been my plan and I might want to get my PhD 'cause I don't really know if I wanna teach yet, but I know I do want to go back to school and I'm hoping for my year off. I'm kind of. I've been emailing different professors at different schools to see if I can do research with them during the year and I'm looking at places in Boone, NC. It's a hot spot for salamanders and biodiversity and I.
You know could be a research technician and I personally want to take a year off, but I know Catherine also has other plans, but I do want to go back to school, so yeah.
Yeah, I'm also going to take a year off, but I have accepted a job here this summer. I'm working for Suwanee Environmental Institute with actually a high school program that high schoolers come and learn from our environmental professors and I'll be a counselor for that. Super excited for it. And then in the fall, I've also accepted an instructor position at McDowell Environmental Institute.
Down in northern Alabama, which is just three hours from here, so I'll be teaching 3rd and 4th graders all about nature outside, not necessarily in the classroom, and I'm really excited about that. I decided to take this year to kind of deep dive into environmental education as a field, since it's sort of a newer interest for me. But I'm really excited about it. And then the plan after that is grad school, either a Masters or a PhD in environmental education. You know, if it goes according to plan, who knows, I might find something else. I'm really excited about too. And run with that for a little bit.
Awesome, thank you both. Yeah, just to kind of touch up some Swanee outcomes. I think it's interesting you know hearing needs and then looking at our data because the most common sectors that we see students going into is education, law, finance and medicine. But we don't necessarily have majors in all of those different fields apart from recently financed. And so I think that really just kind of shows like the breadth and value of liberal arts in general and then also interesting that you both mention grad school, because we actually do have a pretty high rate.
Of Swanee students who go on to receive a graduate degree over the course of 10 years. Post graduation. About 70% of 20 graduates get a other Masters or PhD and I think again, that kind of goes to just the exploration that happens here. As soon as you're constantly encouraged to try out different things, and that doesn't always stop when you graduate from Swanee and you may get a masters in something that was.
You know, building on what you did an undergraduate or could be a completely different Newfield. Same with a PhD, and so I think that's really fascinating. To always see that data from the Career Center of where students are going afterwards, but I know we're running out of time, and I also see that we have still a lot of questions, but please feel free. I'm gonna put up this.
This slide here that has like my contact information, but please feel free to send me an email. Those questions that we weren't able to get to some of them were a little specific to certain programs, but I'm happy to connect you with some current students that are in those programs, such as computer science and economics. We have a great amount of students who work in our office over in emissions, but just kind of as like a final note do. Can both of you just kind of give some parting advice of someone who's coming into Swanee?
They're still thinking about that transition process, wanting to manage that courseload, but how they can one make that a beneficial experience, but also a manageable experience would be interesting here.
I guess a short thing I would say is probably like try everything in moderation so.
There's still things I want to do as a senior, and I, you know, because I didn't do MI. You know, don't have the opportunity, but there's just so many cool things to do here. Obviously time management, but do as much as you can here because it's a really, really unique place. That's my kind of short.
Yeah, I think if you are unsure about which major you want to go into or you have a plan 'cause you think you need a plan, but you're not really sold on it yet. Take the classes that look interesting. I think you'll get the most out of those and it might lead you to an awesome major that you didn't even know existed and then also some advice is get to know your professors. I mean right off the bat you can go and introduce yourself, go to office hours.
If one of them looks particularly cool, or you think their research is interesting, tell them you know. Talk to them. Build that relationship from the very beginning, because it pays off. After you've known a professor for four years, it's it's really worth those very beginning. Kind of awkward, uncomfortable moments, because if you push yourself to build those relationships, it'll be really rewarding.
Perfect, well thank you both so much for spending your evening. You know sharing your experiences here on this campus. And like I said to everyone else, definitely feel free to take a screenshot of this slide that has my email address. Anything that we covered tonight. Happy to answer that. Connect you with other students in certain majors. If you have other questions about the application process. Anything at all enrollment happy to get you the info that you need, but other than that, just thank you all. Thank you both again.
And just have a great rest of your evening and then to some of the international students who are on the call. Have a good day. Depending on how early it is in the morning. But thank you all again. Take care.