Welcome, First Year Students, to The College of Saint Rose! Student and Parent Orientation days are my favorites of the College’s summer activities. It is exciting to meet our newest students who are about to embark on the life-changing journey of higher education. It is delightful to hear your stories, sometimes told by your parents and supporters, about what led you to select Saint Rose for your college education. I trust you will find we offer you experiences with superb faculty, excellent curriculum, strong core values, preparation for your future employment, and, I certainly hope a great deal of fun, as well.
This year we invited you to join me in the Summer Reading Program. You each are given Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario (2006, Random House, NY). I will be in contact with you early this Fall to ask you to join me in discussing the riveting, action-packed and suspenseful book, and the connections you may find in it to your majors, the national discussion on issues the book raises, and the challenges the book presents for examining your thoughts, feelings, and ideals.
Your school year will be kicked off with Academic Convocation, scheduled for 3:30pm on Saturday, August 24, in the Nolan Gymnasium of the Events and Athletics Center. Dr. Jeanne Wiley, Associate Professor of Philosophy, will welcome students into The College of Saint Rose academic community. Convocation is a time-honored academic ritual at Saint Rose. It brings together for a brief, formal greeting all of our First Year Students with family, supporters, and college leaders.
You’ll definitely want to participate in Reach Out Saint Rose on Saturday, September 7th. Last year there were over 700 of us who took part in the campus-wide community service day. We will spend the day volunteering with over 40 agencies and organizations around the Capital Region, with an opportunity to choose from such experiences as making meals at shelters, beautifying neighborhoods, and spending time with children and the elderly. Reach Out Saint Rose is one of many service opportunities that encourage students and staff to engage in projects that positively impact our community as we work to maintain a positive and supportive presence in our urban surroundings. Collectively, Saint Rose students and staff contributed over 2,000 service hours during Reach Out Saint Rose, just a small fraction of the over 133,400 community service hours in which Saint Rose students engaged last year!
If you are a student who will live in one of our dorms, I encourage you to take advantage of REAL LIFE, a program offered in the first year residence halls. The model for the program was designed by Arthur Chickering to guide students through typically-encountered first year adjustments—negotiating roommate issues, maintenance of everyday health and fitness while living away from home, organizing oneself during this time of newfound freedom, and assuring educational success.
Whether or not you opted into American City to work toward completing your liberal education requirements, you should be aware of this signature Saint Rose option. The American City First Year Learning Program is an interdisciplinary faculty liberal education project designed to promote student mastery of intellectual abilities. American City consists of six thematically-linked courses that focus on the urban experience. Eighty to ninety students may enroll in these community-based learning courses. In two to three of the courses, you’ll encounter the same students, and in the remainder, you’ll meet different students, allowing you opportunities to get to know some students well, while helping you to introduce yourself to a number of other students in the remaining courses. You’ll be engaged in field trip activities and service learning, have special learning support, have assured spots in courses for your first year Spring courses, develop your leadership skills, and enjoy being a part of an intimate learning community of students and faculty.
I look forward to meeting you during orientation, and again and often throughout your time at Saint Rose. Enjoy orientation, the remainder of your summer, and thank you for choosing my beloved College of Saint Rose for your undergraduate education!
Sincerely,
Dr. Maggie Kirwin,
Interim President
