The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons has announced 26 Commons iSeminars available to first-year students next semester during class registration.
The iSeminars are intended to encourage first-year students to pursue their passions by modeling rigorous, compelling and unique projects in addition to exposing students to a particular seminar theme. Tapping into such passions and curiosities is central to both Immersion Vanderbilt and the Academic Strategic Plan.
The goal of the iSeminars is not for students to choose their immersion experiences—although that is possible—but rather to start thinking about the possibilities. The iSeminar topics help students imagine ways to make a difference in the world by introducing them early on to the questions of why, how and where having an immersion experience might make a difference in their undergraduate careers.
The iSeminars are designed to be preemptive, preparatory and exploratory. Additionally, these courses have no prerequisites and students may select an iSeminar from any school or discipline, regardless of major or home school.
“For many professors, teaching an iSeminar is an opportunity to reveal the big questions that undergird and support our academic disciplines,” said Gregory Melchor-Barz, interim dean of The Ingram Commons. “Students walk away exposed to the ways in which large-scale research and creative projects are conceptualized, planned and enacted. And the fact that many of us who teach iSeminars wish we had such an experience when we were first-year students speaks volumes to the strength of the program.”
A full listing of iSeminars can be found here. Spring 2019 registration windows open for undergraduates on Oct. 29. Each iSeminar counts for one course credit.