What is the Senior Experience Coda?

高级体验的结尾 (SEC) is a general education requirement that encourages Skidmore students to integrate many aspects of a broad liberal arts education and have the opportunity to imagine themselves—productively, creatively, passionately, and responsibly—as citizens in the world they are facing beyond graduation. The term coda comes from dance, music, and theater, where it describes the final section of a piece that serves to summarize the preceding passages but also introduces a final, 新奇的想法. Coda captures the intended spirit of the Senior Experience, which should strive to enable students to integrate their previous 经验s at Skidmore while at the same time fostering the production of new and creative ideas. 结尾是 moment for a student to simultaneously reflect on his/her/their academic past and 展望未来.

Students in their senior year will complete one of many possible Codas. 没有 specific course or capstone 经验 that students are required to take, but they must find or design an opportunity to take ownership of their own educational 经验 and pursue additional steps to integrate their many 经验s at Skidmore. 与 all courses and capstone 经验s, faculty are free to design Codas as they see 适合. The student’s 经验 with the Coda should be informed by the following themes:

1. Relevance—Students will connect to the broader world, which may mean the broader world of academic discourse and/or the world outside of 火博体育大学. 
2. Integration—Students in the Coda will consciously and reflectively examine their broad and unique liberal arts education. 
3. Creativity—Students in the Coda will produce original work and engage with individual ideas—in analysis, invention, or creation—in all fields.

It is expected that by their senior year, students have a firm idea of their academic interests and some idea of their post-college plans. 在一个结尾，学生可以工作 collaboratively with faculty and peers to identify an appropriate integrative course, research project, performance, and/or practicum. Students may choose to fulfill their Coda within their major, but they are free to find interdisciplinary 经验s and codas offered by other departments. There are many ways to define such courses, including, 但不限于:

• Senior thesis projects or capstone courses/capstone 经验s that require significant 研究和写作;
• Existing maturity-level courses that require substantial engagement with original research, in-depth analysis, service learning, and/or civic engagement with a focus 论整合学习;
• Practicum 经验s within a major (e.g., an Education Studies major may satisfy this requirement with the teaching semester);
• A one-credit add-on to an existing 3 or 4 credit course that requires the student to focus on integrative learning, work in collaborative setting with peers and faculty, and present a final product that satisfies the three Coda themes; and
• A Coda course that is specifically designed by a faculty member to invite students who do not choose to take on individual research or practicum 经验s to engage with the three themes of the Coda.

As part of the Coda, students will have the opportunity to reflect on how their project and liberal arts education connect to society. Working collaboratively with faculty and peers, identifying one’s own particular areas of expertise, and finding moments to reflect on the integrative learning 经验 are essential elements of the senior 经验. The Coda is the conclusion of the sequence of integrative 经验s, and thus, seniors are expected to be able to engage intentionally and thoughtfully with the process of reflecting on their time at Skidmore.