My Colby-Sawyer Experience
“The applied question that we're asking is, 'How do heavy metals move through food webs?'” - Nick Baer, Assistant Professor, Natural Sciences
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the pathway program
The Pathway Program is the foundation of Colby-Sawyer's Liberal Education Program. The program's goal is to ensure that students develop the ability to integrate knowledge from across disciplines.
Each Pathway has an interdisciplinary theme that defines the First Year Seminar, three related Stepping Stones courses and the Sophomore Seminar. The seminars are developed by individual faculty members and reflect their interests and passions. Students choose their Pathway depending on their interest in the theme.
Pathway professors encourage students to develop their full potential and to achieve the college's learning outcomes. Each course pursues these educational goals in its own manner.
Read about students' Pathway Experiences
View the Pathway courses for the 2007-2008 academic year
To learn about the origins of the Pathway Program, read Professor Randy Hanson's Essay and an article about the college's Path to Pathways
First Year Seminar
In the first semester of a student's study at Colby-Sawyer, the college offers several choices of First Year Pathway Seminars. This is a graded 3-credit course, which is theme-based and interdisciplinary. The seminar's goals include:
to introduce students to the demands and pleasures of rigorous intellectual endeavors and to develop good habits of the mind necessary for college level work.
to help students construct their own knowledge.
to develop students' ability to work collaboratively in a community of learners.
to help students appreciate the interconnectedness of knowledge from different disciplines across the breadth of human experience.
to help each student achieve the clarity and perspective to choose an area of concentration while gaining the tools and experience to carry out upper-level study.
Stepping Stones
Each Pathway has three required courses, which provide content important for development of background knowledge in the Pathway topic. Students will choose from among five to ten course options.
These courses represent different areas of the curriculum and count toward the liberal education "Exploration" requirement. 
Sophomore Seminar
In their fourth semester of study, students take the Sophomore Seminar of the same Pathway. This graded, 3-credit course brings together the original Pathway faculty member and students. The goal is for students to demonstrate in-depth understanding of the Pathway theme.
The seminar concludes with an integrated, collaborative investigational project that culminates the Pathway learning experience.
One Example of a Pathway Course
On the Road: Personal and Cultural Journeys in American Culture - PTH101A
This Pathway explores the significance of journeys and journeying in the United States and the roles they have played in shaping individuals, defining historical periods and creating an important cultural identity. Throughout their investigation, students consider how journeying affects those involved and contributes to an overall understanding of the social and cultural roles journeys have played in American history.
In the First Year Seminar, students explore key historical journeys, such as those made by 17th-century explorers and 19th-century pioneers. They examine individual journeys through journals, autobiographies, film, fiction, music and art. In the Sophomore Seminar will explore the journeys of the 21st Century.
Stepping Stones Options for the On the Road Pathway
Students choose three courses from among the following options:
- AME201 - The West in American Culture
- HIS102 - U.S. History 1877 to the Present
- ENG248 - World Literature I: Foundations of Culture
- ENG249 - World Literature II: Post Colonial Literature
- CES201 - Water Resources
- SOC101 - Individual and Community
- REL100 - The Meaning of Life: Introduction to Religious Studies I
- REL101 - The Meaning of Death: Introduction to Religious Studies II
