Program: Senior Year Experience - Otterbein University

Otterbein University Course Catalogs

Mission and Goals

The Senior Year Experience’s mission is to provide a curricular program designed specifically for seniors to experience the complexities of citizenship. In an interdisciplinary setting, students will be asked to confront contemporary issues and apply the knowledge they have learned in their majors and in Integrative Studies.

Students in all SYE courses and options should learn to:

analyze and engage with complex contemporary issues, issues for which the liberal arts graduate is expected, by society, to provide leadership.

apply the skills of synthesis by drawing from multiple disciplinary bases and by developing a “big picture” from diverse perspectives.

use an interdisciplinary approach to reasoning that recognizes the strengths and limits of different disciplines.

engage in active self-reflection, giving conscious attention to ethics, personal values, and citizenship including their roles and responsibilities as educated persons, professionals, and citizens.

integrate learning, bringing together what has been learned in core courses and in major and elective courses to confront a contemporary issue.

engage in social and intellectual interaction with the wider community beyond Otterbein; and

reflect on their liberal arts education, its purposes, and its uses.

Students can meet their SYE requirement through 1) team-taught 5-credit hour interdisciplinary SYE courses; 2) departmental offerings that include SYE components and have been approved by the SYE Committee; or 3) SYE offerings tied to off-campus, immersion, internship, or individualized experiences. Because the options meeting this requirement vary from year to year, they are listed annually in registration materials available in the Registrar’s Office, and online. Because effort is made each year to offer SYEs across a range of interests and learning types, seniors should familiarize themselves with all SYE materials and meet with their advisor before carefully choosing and registering for their SYE. Students must have completed 135 credit hours and seven of ten Integrative Studies courses before taking the SYE requirement. Some options may have additional prerequisites; check individual course descriptions. The SYE requirement must be taken in residence.

Students in all SYE options can expect to work toward the following goals:

analyze and engage with complex contemporary issues, issues for which the liberal arts graduate is expected, by society, to provide leadership;

practice the skills of synthesis by drawing from multiple disciplinary bases and by developing a “big picture” from diverse perspectives;

use interdisciplinary materials and methods and begin to recognize the strengths and limits of their own and other disciplines;

practice active self-reflection, giving conscious attention to ethics, personal values, and citizenship, including their roles and responsibilities as educated persons, professionals, and citizens;

practice the integration of learning, bringing together what has been learned in core courses and in major and elective courses to confront a contemporary issue;

engage in social and intellectual interaction with the wider community beyond Otterbein; and

reflect on liberal arts education, its purpose, and its uses.

Senior Year Experience Courses (SYE)

New team-taught interdisciplinary courses are being created and developed all the time, so specific SYE course offerings vary from year to year. Courses have included:

Community, Leadership and Change in Non-Profit and Social Service Organizations

Toward Peace with Justice: Living and Leading in Community (service-learning option)

Free Choices? Making Choices in a Free Enterprise Society

1900-Vienna-2000 (with travel to Vienna)

Media and the Law

Naked, Communist, and Sober: The Search for Utopia

The Face of AIDS

Inventing the Self and the Future

Global Citizenship: Issues and Problems for the 21st Century

September 11th and After

Africa (with travel to an African country)

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Senior Year Experience

Mission and Goals

Senior Year Experience Courses (SYE)