Sophomore year may traditionally be regarded as the ‘lost year’ of higher education, but students and administrators at Colgate are taking strides to buck that stereotype.
The Sophomore Year Experience (SYE), in its first year, is a comprehensive program that seeks to give sophomore students a sense of direction in a year of critical transition.
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This year, the SYE has delivered numerous programs and social events geared specifically towards sophomores, encouraging them to ask questions about their academic and career goals, become involved in the Colgate and Hamilton communities, and form new bonds with members of their class.
The SYE is made possible through the efforts of Raj Bellani, dean of the sophomore year experience, as well as the sophomore class council, led by president Preston Burnes and vice president Sian-Pierre Regis.
‘During sophomore year, students are at a crossroads; they feel comfortable with the school, but their direction isn’t focused enough. We wanted to provide them with additional support and programming that met their needs,’ said Bellani.
The SYE is part of the larger residential education plan, a means of teaching leadership skills and integrating living and learning in a residential environment. Adam Weinberg, dean of the college, recognized a need to build community within the student body, targeting sophomores first to eradicate that ‘lost year’ label.
The SYE has cast a wide net over Colgate, drawing on help in programming from residential education, career services, academic departments, and the Center for Leadership and Student Involvement. This ‘partnership programming,’ as Bellani calls it, helps reinforce connections on campus, making the larger Colgate community a stronger whole, as well as keeping people active.
And as a result, sophomore students have been anything but stagnant.
Some programs the SYE hosted this year included a formal networking dinner with alumni who answered questions about career choices (another dinner is scheduled for early March), the ‘Democracy Meals,’ where groups of 15 to 20 students share dinner and conversation in Merrill House with a faculty member, study breaks, sophomore-only residential options, and partnering with the Center for Ethics and World Societies (CEWS) to encourage students to attend the center’s lectures.
‘We have all the resources here to host these lectures and programs and events,’ said Bellani. ‘Just seeing the students networking shows the success these programs are having. The social events are bringing them closer together as a class. There’s no pressure at these events; just real, honest conversation.
‘We’re role modeling the lifestyle we expect our students to lead. We’re challenging students to think differently,’ he added.
Faculty members also are reaping benefits from the program. Many have found that the SYE has encouraged them to reach beyond their departments and daily commitments.
‘My experiences have been useful because they have given me the opportunity to talk with students outside of my area, and this provided me a larger perspective on the Colgate student experience. I think the students also benefit from getting a different perspective from a faculty member outside of their area of interest,’ said assistant professor of psychology Spencer Kelly.
Bellani believes the SYE is the first of its kind in the nation.
‘The SYE is unique in that there is intentional thought behind the programming, as in, gearing it towards sophomores, and there’s a dean that’s attached to this particular year. There was a recognition that this community needed to be worked with,’ he said.
Integral to the success of the program has been the extensive efforts made by the sophomore class council.
Both Burnes and Regis noted a lack of class cohesiveness during their first year. They had friends all over the map, yet those friends traveled in separate circles. They had a desire ‘ independent of one another ‘ to build a community within a community. That motivated them to run for office.
Unbeknownst to either of them, Weinberg, Bellani, and others were busily planting seeds for the SYE. Burnes’ and Regis’ desires to increase class camaraderie happened to coincide with the dean of the college staff’s greater vision of building community on campus.
‘(Bellani) just called us up over the summer and told us about the SYE. I was nervous, personally, because it sounded like an intense commitment. But it was great. He pumped us up about it all summer. He got us (the sophomore class council) here early to meet and get to know each other better. And we’re like a family now. A lot of that is thanks to the effort (Bellani) put in,’ said Burnes.
The goal of class council’s planning and programming, Regis and Burnes said, is exposure: to give sophomores a taste of the many diverse programs and resources Colgate has to offer.
‘We want to have programs with career services, some social events, some community service events, and some athletic events. We really want to be able to look back at the end of the semester and say we provided a broad range of events,’ said Burnes.
Attendance at the events has been good. The kick-off to the sophomore year ‘ a foam party in the Palace Theatre ‘ drew 1,200 people. And the success has only increased as the group has grown stronger and more confident.
So has the program helped build a sense of class cohesiveness’
Apparently so.
‘When I go to reunion in 20 years, I’ll feel like I’ve made a difference in how great that reunion is going to be. I feel like students that might not have said ‘Hi’ to each other will now. It’s just been a shift in the mindset. We’re a strong class, we’re a good class, we’re friends, and we’re all there to help each other. Before, that wasn’t there. It wasn’t so much something that someone did tangibly to shift that mindset, but people just feel differently about their classmates now,’ Burnes said.
Part of the program’s success stems from the added administrative support ‘ both financial and verbal. Many council members acknowledged that they have been granted permission to do things and utilize resources in ways they never have before.
‘I am one of the only ones who was on class council last year,’ said class council secretary Amy Dudley. ‘In terms of what we’ve done and what we’ve been allowed to do, it’s above and beyond anything we could do last year. Dinners, parties at the Palace, the etiquette dinner, class trips. I feel like we’ve made somewhat of a difference in our class and on campus.’
Though the SYE can only become stronger in the years ahead now that there is an infrastructure in place, the class council was unanimous in saying that the success of its events depends largely on the ideas and efforts of its council members.
Burnes, Regis, and other members of the sophomore class council are planning to run again. Knowing that they were shareholders in the success of the SYE, they couldn’t imagine not providing for their class again.
‘People are just surprised. They’ve been caught off guard by this. There was nothing like this last year and all of a sudden, this year we just dominated. Everything we do continues to surprise people,’ said Burnes.
Jess Buchsbaum
Office of Communications and Public Relations
315.228.6637